!i 


III 


i  pip  ij  I  iiii 


THE   RECOVERY  AND   RESTATE- 
MENT OF  THE   GOSPEL 


Recovery  £?  Restatement 


of  the  Gospel 


BY 

LORAN  DAVID  OSBORN,  PH.D. 


CHICAGO 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 

1903 


COPYRIGHT     1 903 
THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 


To  R.  R.  O. 


CONTENTS. 

TAGS 

PREFACE xi 

INTRODUCTION xv 

PART  I.    THE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

CHAPTER  I.    THE  MODERN  SPIRIT  AND  ITS  SEARCH  FOR 

REALITY 3 

I.  The  modern  spirit  and  modern  culture       -         -  4 

II.  The  modern  spirit  and  Christianity  12 

CHAPTER  II.    THE  OBSCURATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL  IN  THE 

COURSE  OF  ITS  HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  19 

I.  The  early  transformation  of  Christianity  -        -  19 

The  ecclesiastical  transformation  -                 -         -  20 

The  theological  transformation         -        -        -  27 

II.  From  Origen  to  the  Reformation  36 

III.  The  obscuration  of  the  gospel  resulting  from  the 

early  transformation  of  Christianity      -  40 

The  radical  character  of  the  change  40 

The  eclipse  of  the  personal  element  in  the  gospel  47 

The  moral  eclipse  of  the  gospel        ...  59 

CHAPTER  III.    THE    HISTORICAL    RECOVERY   OF   THE 

GOSPEL 67 

I.  The  Lutheran  Reformation      ....  68 
II.  The  post-Reformation  re-eclipse  of  the  gospel       -  73 
The  survival  of  Greco-Catholic  dogmatics  in  Prot- 
estantism        73 

The  new  emphasis  placed  upon  theology  79 
The  formal  principle  of  the  Reformation  displaces 

the  material  principle  in  importance     -  8l 

The  dogmatic  system  is  read  back  into  the  Bible  -  83 

The  new  element  in  the  post-Reformation  eclipse  85 


viii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

III.  The  nineteenth-century  reformation          -  89 

The  return  to  the  Christian  records  90 

The  popular  reopening  of  the  Bible          -  95 

The  scientific  reopening  of  the  Bible  98 

CHAPTER  IV.    THE  RECOVERED  GOSPEL  OF  THE  NEW 

TESTAMENT 113 

I.  Attitude  of     modern   exegesis   toward   the   New 

Testament  literature 113 

II.  The  gospel  of  Jesus 117 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  the  Mediator  of  salvation          -  118 

God  the  Heavenly  Father  the  Author  of   salvation  122 

The  nature  and  conditions  of  salvation          -        -  123 

1.  Salvation  as  the  kingdom  of  God      -        -  123 

2.  Salvation  as  eternal  life         -        -        -        -  129 
III.  Conclusions --  132 

1.  The  New  Testament  terminology    -        -        -  132 

2.  The  true  nature  of  the  gospel       -         -         -  135 

PART  II.    THE  RESTATEMENT  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

CHAPTER  I.    THE  GOSPEL  AND  THEOLOGY    -       -        -  153 

I.  The  nature  of  theological  statement  154 

II.  The  value  of  theological  statement        -        -         -  1 59 

III.  The  right  of  theological  restatement        -        -  170 

IV.  The  need  of  theological  restatement  at  the  present 

time 176 

CHAPTER  II.    THE  GOSPEL  RESTATED:    A  SUGGESTED 

THEOLOGICAL  SYSTEM 185 

I.  The  governing  position  of  Jesus  Christ  in  theology  187 

1.  Theology  must  be  loyal  to  the  thought  of  Jesus  187 

2.  Corollary:  the  place  of  the  Bible  in  Christianity  187 

3.  Statement  of  the  theme  of  theology    -         -  197 
II.  Jesus  Christ  the  Mediator  of  eternal  life         -         -  197 

The  mission  of  Jesus 19? 

The  person  of  Christ 201 

III.  God  the  Author  and  Source  of  eternal  life         -  205 


CONTENTS  ix 

PACK 

IV.  Man  the  recipient  of  eternal  life            ...  207 

The  origin  and  nature  of  man          ...  207 

The  origin  and  nature  of  sin         -         -         -         -211 

V.  The  nature  and  conditions  of  eternal  life  213 

The  nature  of  eternal  life 214 

Entrance  into  eternal  life  -  -  -  -  214 

The  continuance  of  life 218 

The  result  and  reward  of  eternal  life  -  -  221 

VI.  Eternal  life  and  the  kingdom  of  God  •  -  222 

The  organic  nature  of  the  kingdom  of  God  -  223 

Relations  within  the  kingdom  of  God  -  -  -  223 

The  law  of  the  kingdom  -  -  -  -  225 

How  the  law  of  the  kingdom  is  fulfilled  -  -  227 

The  progress  and  consummation  of  the  kingdom  232 

CHAPTER  III.    CONCLUSION 240 

The  change  of  center  in  theology         -         -        -  240 
The  view  advocated  explains  the  situation,  both 

historically 244 

and  practically 247 


PREFACE. 

THIS  book  is  the  product  of  thinking  and  ex- 
perience, rather  than  of  reading.  It  is  not  to  be 
inferred  that  the  author  has  not  adequately  in- 
formed himself  concerning  the  questions  of  fact 
involved,  or  that  he  has  failed  to  read  what 
others  have  said  about  the  interpretation  of  those 
facts.  What  is  meant  is  that  the  subject  has 
been  worked  out  in  vital  connection  with  the 
author's  mental  and  spiritual  development,  and 
that  his  thinking  has  kept  in  advance  of  his 
reading.  For  this  reason,  as  well  as  because  of 
the  wide  range  of  the  subject  and  the  demands 
of  a  busy  pastorate,  the  book  has  been  in  prepa- 
ration during  the  past  five  years.  It  has  been 
in  typewritten  form  for  two  years,  with  an  altera- 
tion now  and  then  to  bring  it  more  closely  into 
touch  with  new  conceptions  of  truth  and  the 
practical  aspects  of  religion  which  a  pastor  con- 
tinually meets.  The  thought  in  mind  has  been 
not  merely,  Is  it  true  ?  but  also,  Will  it  work  ? 
The  result  of  the  waiting,  with  its  theological 
clinical  work  and  added  reading,  has  not  materi- 
ally changed  the  conclusions. 

A  significant  statement  appears  in  a  recent 
book:  "If  I  mistake  not,  the  unrest  of  the  time 


xii  PREFACE 

is  less  a  revolt  against  the  content  of  traditional 
beliefs  than  anxiety  to  find  some  way  of  being 
sure  of  something.  The  great  question  is  not 
whether  this  or  that  doctrine  is  true,  but  rather 
where  a  starting-point  is  to  be  found,  and  how 
we  are  to  distinguish  the  true  from  the  false."1 
We  do  not  want  opinions,  but  facts.  Christian 
truth  at  first  hand  is  being  sought  and  found  to- 
day in  three  great  fields  of  study:  psychology,  in 
the  widest  sense,  including  investigations  in  the 
schools  and  in  practical  religious  and  social  serv- 
ice ;  New  Testament  exegesis ;  and  the  history 
of  the  church  and  of  theology.  The  present  book 
scarcely  touches  the  first  of  these  fields.  For 
myself,  that  which  brought  order  out  of  chaos 
and  became  the  guiding  thread  of  constructive 
work  was  the  turning  from  contemporary  the- 
ology, where  there  are  such  widely  differing 
opinions,  back  to  the  New  Testament,  in  an 
earnest  and  open-minded  desire  to  understand  its 
teachings.  I  then  found  myself  forced  into  the 
history  of  interpretation  and  of  theology,  as  well 
as  into  a  study  of  the  formation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment canon.  In  a  word,  touch  with  reality  was 
gained  and  a  starting-point  found  in  turning  from 
the  theological  to  the  historical  method  of  study. 
This,  in  turn,  brought  me  back  to  the  pres- 
ent theological  problem.  May  I  quote  again, 

1 G.  A.  COE,  The  Religion  of  a  Mature  Mind,  p.  62. 


PREFACE  xiii 

from  a  recent  article?  "To  those  who  have 
fought  their  way  through  from  irrational  and  op- 
pressive beliefs  there  is  a  freedom  in  the  new- 
found position  that  is  full  of  exhilaration.  We 
imagine  that  it  is  the  content  of  the  new  that  sus- 
tains us,  whereas  it  is  in  reality  the  sense  of  vic- 
tory over  the  old.  The  great  religious  problem 
before  us  is  how  to  cast  out  the  errors  of  an  out- 
worn creed  and  yet  hold  fast  to  its  truths — how 
to  avoid  what  the  Germans  call  emptying  the 
child  out  with  the  bath."1  The  negative  victory 
will  not  long  prove  sufficient.  And  while  the  non- 
theological  attitude  of  a  purely  spiritual  appropri- 
ation of  the  great  religious  truths  of  the  Bible 
will  satisfy  for  a  longer  time,  and  some  minds 
permanently,  the  thoughtful  mind  is  impelled 
sooner  or  later  to  the  farther  step  of  articulating 
the  religious  truths  of  the  New  Testament  and  of 
experience  into  a  system  of  thinking  that  will 
bring  them  into  correlation  with  the  rest  of  human 
knowledge. 

And  when  once  a  man  has  gotten  back  to  the 
constructive  problem,  he  is  often  surprised  to 
find  how  near  he  is  to  the  place  from  which  he 
started.  He  realizes  that  it  is  the  same  great 
truth  that  has  been  struggling  for  expression 
through  the  ages,  and  he  comes  to  have  a  new 

'T.  D.  BACON,  "The  Coming  Religious  Problem,"  in  The 
Outlook,  March  21,  1903. 


xiv  PREFACE 

respect  for  the  old  historic  creeds,  even  though 
he  cannot  accept  them  as  final ;  for  they  are  now 
perceived  to  have  been  at  one  time  living  words 
spoken  from  earnest  human  souls  engaged  in  the 
same  quest  as  his  own.  Yet  the  difference  be- 
tween the  new  position  and  the  old  is  a  real  one, 
nevertheless.  It  is  the  difference  between  travel- 
ing the  road  for  ourselves  and  taking  someone's 
description  of  it.  It  is  the  difference  between 
learning  what  others  have  said  and  saying  things 
ourselves.  But  more  than  this,  there  is  a  new 
point  of  view,  a  different  emphasis,  a  better 
proportion,  an  assimilation  of  the  world's  grow- 
ing knowledge,  a  vital  expression  in  contem- 
porary speech — and  these  are  much.  It  has 
been  worth  while. 

This  experience  of  mine  is,  if  I  mistake  not, 
the  experience  of  many;  is,  indeed,  typical  of 
our  age.  The  restless  spirit  passes  along  the 
way  of  vital  religious  experience  on  to  the  con- 
structive task.  It  is  in  the  hope  that  the  result 
of  my  own  struggle,  put  into  just  this  form,  may 
help  others  to  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  rest 
which  I  have  found,  that  this  book  is  published. 
It  does  not  settle  the  questions  involved  in 
Christian  thinking;  they  never  will  be  settled. 
But  it  takes  an  attitude  toward  them,  giving  both 
present  satisfaction  and  room  for  indefinite 
growth.  This  is  worth  even  more. 

BLOOMINGTON,  ILL.,  May,  1903. 


INTRODUCTION. 
THE  QUESTION  STATED. 

THE  purpose  of  the  following  pages  is  to  show 
how  the  gospel  of  Jesus  has  become  obscured 
during  the  course  of  its  historical  development, 
and  that  it  is  therefore  necessary  to  go  back  of 
this  in  order  to  recover  the  gospel  which  he  taught ; 
and  further,  that,  inasmuch  as  the  world's  culture 
has  radically  changed  during  the  centuries  since 
Christianity  received  its  first  dogmatic  expression, 
this  recovered  gospel  needs  restatement  in  terms 
of  modern  thought  and  life. 

In  asserting  that  the  gospel  has  been  ob- 
scured, no  one  would  claim  that  it  has  ever 
been  wholly  lost.  During  even  the  darkest  of 
the  centuries  it  has  still  been  a  mighty  power  in 
the  world.  It  has  transformed  lives  and  deter- 
mined the  destiny  of  nations.  It  has  leavened 
society,  influenced  the  movements  of  thought, 
and  produced  a  civilization  that  is  at  least  semi- 
Christian. 

Yet  there  are  good  reasons  for  suspecting  that 
a  real  obscuration  has  taken  place.  As  thought  is 
handed  down  from  age  to  age  it  tends  to  become 
dead  and  stereotyped  tradition.  The  new  gen- 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

eration  attempts  to  appropriate  the  statements 
of  the  former  time,  but  life  has  moved  on  and 
the  old  forms  of  expression  no  longer  possess 
vital  force.  Again,  when  Christianity  entered 
the  world,  it  came  into  an  alien  and  unfriendly 
environment.  In  process  of  time  it  was  modified 
by  these  outside  influences,  and  lost  something 
of  its  original  power.  Yet  again,  the  gospel 
came  at  first  in  the  form  of  life  and  speech.  It 
had  to  be  reduced  to  writing  and  brought  into 
relation  to  the  world's  thought.  Then,  as  it 
came  into  contact  with  the  nations,  this  original 
literature  was  translated  into  other  languages. 
Thus  the  gospel  has  been  subject  to  radical 
transplantings  as  it  has  been  transferred  from  the 
soil  of  Jewish  life  and  forms  of  thought  to  that 
of  Greek,  Roman,  German,  and  English  life  and 
culture.  It  has  been  called  upon  to  pass  out  of 
one  civilization  into  an  entirely  different  one,  in 
coming  from  the  ancient  to  the  modern  world. 
It  would  be  strange,  indeed,  if  this  long  and 
intricate  process  had  not  affected  Christianity 
and  caused  later  conceptions  of  the  gospel  to 
depart  from  the  original.  Hence,  on  a  priori 
grounds  alone,  we  should  expect  that,  after 
eighteen  hundred  years  of  such  a  history,  the 
gospel  would  have  become  obscured. 

If   we   turn  now    to   the    great    claims    that 
Christianity   makes,  and   reflect    upon  its   com- 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

parative  failure  to  vindicate  them,  we  arrive 
at  the  same  conclusion.  Jesus  Christ  came 
into  the  world  to  save  it.  It  remains  unsaved. 
He  came  in  order  that  on  earth  God's  kingdom 
might  come  and  his  will  be  done  as  in  heaven. 
God's  will  is  not  done  on  earth,  nor  is  his  king- 
dom triumphant.  Making  all  possible  allowance 
for  the  magnitude  of  the  task,  and  giving  full 
recognition  to  what  has  been  accomplished,  still 
something  is  radically  wrong,  that  after  nearly 
two  thousand  years  the  claims  of  the  gospel 
have  been  fulfilled  in  so  small  a  measure.  The 
institutional  life  of  the  world  remains  almost 
untouched  organically.  What  is  at  fault  ?  Are 
we  mistaken  in  thinking  that  God  was  in  Christ 
reconciling  the  world  unto  himself  ?  Is  not  the 
gospel  in  reality  the  power  of  God  unto  salva- 
tion ?  There  are  good  reasons  for  suspecting 
that  the  difficulty  lies,  at  least  partially,  in  the 
fact  that  the  gospel  has  been  obscured  and  mis- 
conceived, and  so  has  led  to  misdirected  energy 
on  the  part  of  God's  people. 

The  probability  of  an  obscuration  of  the 
gospel,  suggested  by  the  above  considerations, 
becomes  a  certainty  when  we  compare  modern 
Christianity  with  the  Christianity  of  the  New 
Testament.  The  one  is  characterized  by  form- 
alism and  intellectualism,  the  other  by  freedom 
and  spiritual  power.  When  a  man  once  escapes 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

from  the  persistent  fiction  that  Protestantism,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  is  a  perfect  reproduction  of 
New  Testament  Christianity,  then  the  more  he 
works  his  way  into  New  Testament  thought  and 
the  better  he  understands  modern  Christianity, 
the  more  clearly  does  he  see  the  gulf  between 
the  two. 

Moreover,  as  we  follow  back  the  history  of 
Christianity  we  are  able  to  discover  just  where 
and  when  and  how  this  disastrous  obscuration 
actually  occurred,  and  in  what  it  consists.  It 
took  place  in  the  formative  period  of  the  first 
three  centuries,  and  was  a  radical  secularizing  of 
the  gospel.  The  institutional  eclipse  of  the  gos- 
pel during  that  time,  resulting  from  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Catholic  church,  with  its  hierarchical 
priesthood  and  ecclesiastical  salvation,  is  now 
generally  recognized  throughout  the  Protestant 
world.  The  great  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth 
century  was  directed  against  that  error.  The 
issue  now  hinges  upon  the  question  whether 
during  the  same  period  there  occurred  a  theo- 
logical eclipse  which  has  persisted  until  the  pres- 
ent time.  Was  the  theological  development  of 
that  formative  period  the  legitimate  unfolding 
of  the  gospel  of  Jesus,  or  did  it  transform  the 
nature  of  that  gospel  by  the  introduction  of  new 
and  incongruous  elements  ?  In  the  early  adjust- 
ment of  Christianity  to  contemporary  thought, 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

accomplished  in  the  formation  of  the  first  Chris- 
tian theology,  did  the  gospel  become  so  identi- 
fied with  this  theology  as  to  be  changed  in 
essential  character  from  a  life  of  faith,  affecting 
the  whole  nature  of  man,  to  assent  to  a  body  of 
philosophical  knowledge,  affecting  chiefly  his 
intellectual  life  ? 

In  other  words,  stated  in  present  terms,  the 
question  is  this  :  What  is  it  to  be  a  Christian? 
Does  it  consist  in,  or  necessarily  involve,  the 
acceptance  of  the  traditional  dogmatic  theology 
of  the  church,  or  does  it  consist  solely  in  con- 
fident trust  in  Christ  and  loyal  obedience  to  his 
will?  What  is  Christianity  in  its  essential  na- 
ture ?  A  life  of  faith,  or  a  creed  ?  Or  is  it  a 
faith  plus  a  creed  ? 

This  problem  is  fundamental.  The  issue  here 
is  not  the  difficulty  that  one  generation  finds  in 
entering  into  the  thought  of  another,  nor  the 
difficulty  of  translating  thought  from  one  lan- 
guage to  another.  It  lies  deeper.  It  has  to  do, 
not  with  the  outside  or  accidental  aberrations  of 
the  gospel,  but  with  its  inner  and  essential 
nature.  At  the  present  time  no  other  theo- 
logical question  can  compare  with  this  in  impor- 
tance. Either  consciously  or  unconsciously  it 
lies  at  the  very  heart  of  the  modern  theological 
ferment.  There  will  be  no  peace,  and  there  ought 
to  be  none,  until  a  thorough  investigation  has 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

brought  clearly  to  light  the  true  nature  of  the 
gospel  proclaimed  by  Christianity. 

The  answer  to  this  question  is  not  easily 
found.  Our  first  thought  would  be  to  go 
directly  to  the  written  documents  of  the  primi- 
tive period,  as  contained  in  the  New  Testament. 
But  we  soon  discover  that  these  also  have  had  a 
history,  which  must  be  understood  before  their 
contents  can  be  justly  estimated.  Moreover, 
they  were  written  under  definite  historical  condi- 
tions, which  render  them  subject  to  the  ordinary 
laws  of  historical  and  literary  criticism.  The 
records  depend  upon  the  historical  events  which 
precede  them ;  the  history  itself  is  primary. 
And  this  history  is  not  isolated,  but  is  most 
intimately  related  to  the  whole  complex  en- 
vironment of  the  times.  Thus  is  imposed  the 
task  of  reproducing  the  history  of  New  Testament 
times,  in  both  its  narrower  and  its  wider  circles, 
if  we  would  rightly  interpret  the  New  Testament 
records. 

A  further  difficulty  exists  in  the  fact  that  we 
are  living  in  the  intellectual  and  religious  atmos- 
phere that  is  itself  the  result  of  the  hereditary 
complex  of  ideas  formed  by  the  long  course  of 
history  that  separates  us  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment times.  We  see  the  New  Testament  through 
this  atmosphere;  and  hence  there  is  a  strong 
tendency  to  read  it  in  the  light  of  its  traditional 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

interpretation.  But  this  is  the  theological  inter- 
pretation, which  is  itself  a  part  of  the  very  obscu- 
ration that  we  are  trying  to  locate.  Later 
theological  ideas,  and  new  meanings  acquired  by 
words  during  the  historical  development  of  Chris- 
tianity, are  unconsciously  reflected  back  into  the 
Bible  and  attached  to  its  language.  The  diffi- 
culty can  be  overcome  only  by  getting  outside  of 
the  traditional  theological  environment.  Just  as 
the  scientist  in  his  experiments  makes  allowance 
for  the  personal  equation,  so  here  we  must  reckon 
with  this  theological  equation.  We  must  work 
our  way  back  to  the  New  Testament,  and  learn  to 
read  it  in  the  light  of  the  age  in  which  it  was 
written. 

For  these  reasons,  therefore,  to  decide  what 
original  Christianity  was  is  not  so  simple  and 
direct  a  task  as  it  might  seem.  It  involves  a 
knowledge  of  the  New  Testament  that  will  do 
justice  to  the  historical  environment  in  which  it 
was  written,  and  an  understanding  of  the  history 
of  Christianity  that  will  make  possible  a  just 
estimate  of  the  influence  of  the  post-biblical 
development. 

These  are  the  two  tasks  that  are  being  accom- 
plished, respectively,  in  the  sciences  of  modern 
biblical  exegesis  and  church  history.  The  one 
attempts  to  understand  the  New  Testament  as 
interpreted  by  the  canons  of  historical  criticism; 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

the  other,  by  unveiling  the  later  development, 
discovers  what  has  been  added  to  Christianity, 
and  when  and  how  these  additions  were  effected. 
All  the  work  in  these  departments  has  not  yet 
been  completed,  but  the  main  conclusions  are 
well  enough  established  so  that  they  can  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  problem  of  the  re- 
covery of  the  gospel. 

While  we  might  begin  with  the  conclusions  of 
either  of  these  sciences,  there  is  a  distinct  ad- 
vantage in  considering  the  historical  development 
first.  To  trace  the  progress  of  Christian  thought 
prepares  the  mind  for  a  more  unprejudiced  con- 
sideration of  its  beginnings,  by  disclosing  the 
allowance  that  must  be  made  for  what  we  have 
called  the  theological  equation.  Yet  these 
two,  the  study  of  New  Testament  teaching  and 
the  consideration  of  its  development  in  history, 
cannot  be  kept  entirely  separate.  We  have  to 
begin  with  something.  We  cannot  really  trace 
the  stream  backward,  but  must  start  tentatively 
at  the  source,  follow  it  down,  and  then,  with  the 
new  knowledge  gained,  go  back  and  more  fully 
explore  the  sources.  The  first  of  these  tasks  is 
attempted  in  chaps,  ii  and  iii,  the  second  in  chap, 
iv  ;  while  chap,  i  discusses  the  spirit  that  ani- 
mates the  entire  modern  religious  movement. 

The  historical  process  described  in  these  chap- 
ters is  nowhere  in  a  straight  line.  It  is  much 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 

involved,  and  the  movement  is  sometimes  well- 
nigh  lost  in  the  confusing  interplay  of  forces  and 
the  multiplicity  of  details.  If  the  matter  seems 
presented  more  clearly  in  this  discussion  than  in 
the  history  itself,  it  is  because  the  logical  signifi- 
cance of  the  movement  is  clearer  than  the  chrono- 
logical sequence  of  events. 

The  theme  of  Part  I  is,  thus,  the  recovery 
of  the  Christian  gospel.  Part  II  deals  with  the 
problem  of  the  restatement  of  that  gospel  in 
modern  language.  Much  confusion  is  avoided 
by  keeping  the  two  questions  distinct. 

The  necessity  for  this  restatement  of  Christian- 
ity arises  from  the  change  in  the  world's  culture. 
The  right  to  make  such  a  restatement  lies  in  the 
fact  that  theology  is  only  the  human  science  of 
Christianity.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  a  new 
theology  does  not  mean  a  new  gospel.  The  dog- 
matic statement  of  Christianity  is  extra-biblical 
and  post-biblical.  It  therefore  has  none  of  the 
divine  sanction  and  authority  attaching  to  the 
gospel  itself.  Theology,  having  been  made  by 
men,  may  be  remade  by  other  men.  But  the  case  is 
different  with  the  gospel.  What  we  are  contend- 
ing for  is  the  old  gospel — an  older  gospel,  indeed, 
than  the  church  has  had  for  many  centuries ; 
older  than  Calvin  and  Augustine;  older  than  Ath- 
anasius  and  Origen ;  even  as  old  as  Jesus  Christ, 
its  divine  founder.  Yet  we  also  maintain  that,  if 


xxiv  INTRODUCTION 

the  church  is  to  have  any  dogmatic  expression  of 
this  gospel  at  all,  it  should  be  in  the  terms  of 
thought  of  the  twentieth  century,  rather  than  of 
the  fourth  or  the  sixteenth.  One  of  the  greatest 
needs  of  our  day  is  the  old  gospel  expressed  in  a 
new  theology. 

A  few  words  should  be  said  concerning  the 
limits  of  the  discussion  undertaken  in  the  follow- 
ing pages.  The  task  that  the  author  has  set  for 
himself  is  not  an  apologetic  one.  No  attempt  is 
made  to  prove  the  finality  of  the  Christian 
religion  To  make  that  proof  would  require 
a  book  along  an  entirely  different  line.  Only 
two  things  are  attempted :  first,  the  recovery 
of  primitive  Christianity  by  a  just  estimate  of 
the  nature  and  extent  of  its  obscuration  during 
the  course  of  history,  and  a  study  of  the  New 
Testament  sources;  and,  second,  the  restatement 
of  Christianity  in  terms  of  modern  thought.  So 
far  as  the  main  argument  is  concerned,  there  is 
no  more  certainty  that  primitive  Christianity,  even 
after  it  has  been  recovered,  is  the  ultimate  religion 
thanthatthirteenth-century  or  nineteenth-century 
Christianity  is,  or  even  Buddhism,  or  Confucian- 
ism, or  any  other  religion.  The  whole  apologetic 
problem  lies  beyond  the  limits  of  the  present  dis- 
cussion. 

Yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  author  has 


INTRODUCTION  xxv 

everywhere  assumed  that  the  original  gospel  of 
Jesus  furnishes  ultimate  religious  reality.  At 
first  thought  this  might  be  regarded  as  a  fault  in 
a  scientific  treatment  of  the  subject.  But  several 
considerations  are  available  for  the  defense  of  the 
discussion  as  it  stands.  The  first  is  that  which 
has  already  been  suggested,  namely,  that  the 
assumption  referred  to  in  no  way  invalidates  the 
real  contention  of  the  book  —  that  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  was  obscured  during  its  historical  develop- 
ment, is  being  gradually  recovered  through  an- 
other historical  process,  and  should  now  be 
restated  in  the  language  of  modern  life.  In  the 
second  place,  the  conviction  of  the  finality  of  the 
gospel  is  a  part  of  the  gospel  itself,  and  has  been 
ever  since  the  days  of  Jesus.  Every  discussion 
must  have  some  starting-point.  The  book  finds 
this  in  the  gospel  of  Jesus,  and  does  not  attempt 
to  go  back  of  that.  It  has  a  right,  therefore,  to 
make  the  same  assumption  that  is  everywhere 
bound  up  in  that  gospel.  Indeed,  to  eliminate 
that  assumption  is  impossible  without  depoten- 
tiatingthe  gospel,  and  to  prove  it  is  unnecessary, 
inasmuch  as  that  is  not  the  purpose  in  view.  And 
finally,  it  is  this  very  presupposition  of  the  intrin- 
sic value  of  the  gospel  that  makes  the  subject 
worth  considering  at  all,  and  that  gives  it  special 
interest  at  the  present  time.  That  which  men 
regard  as  of  no  value  may  be  obscured  or  com- 


xxvi  INTRODUCTION 

pletely  lost  without  causing  solicitude.  But  the 
conviction  of  the  gospel  that  it  offers  ultimate 
religious  truth  has  been  the  cause  of  the  whole 
historical  process  of  Christianity  in  the  world. 
This  claim  offers  in  itself  adequate  and  most 
attractive  material  for  an  independent  treatise, 
but  the  author  has  purposely  passed  it  by  and 
chosen  the  other  subject,  assuming  throughout 
his  own  discussion  the  truth  that  would  be  the 
conclusion  of  the  first — namely,  that  the  uncor- 
rupted  gospel  of  Jesus  furnishes  ultimate  religious 
reality. 


PART  I 
THE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  GOSPEL 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    MODERN    SPIRIT    AND    ITS  SEARCH   FOR 
REALITY. 

THE  modern  religious  movement  was  not 
inaugurated  by  a  priori  probabilities  respecting 
the  obscuration  of  the  gospel.  Such  considera- 
tions never  would  have  shaken  the  church  from 
its  dogmatic  slumber.  The  movement  is  due  to 
the  modern  spirit,  the  Zeitgeist  of  our  age,  with 
its  new  historical  sense  and  intense  love  of  real- 
ity. 

Nothing  else  is  so  characteristic  of  the  mod- 
ern world  as  this  spirit,  which,  because  it  has 
found  its  clearest  expression  in  the  realm  of  nat- 
ural science,  we  have  come  to  call  the  scientific 
spirit.  It  is  something  new,  due  apparently  to 
the  emerging  genius  of  the  Germanic  peoples, 
coming  at  last  to  maturity  and  awakening  to 
activity  after  its  long  period  of  silent  develop- 
ment. In  the  great  Renaissance,  that  wonderful 
new  birth  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  world  of 
thought  was  shaken  as  in  the  throes  of  a  mighty 
travail,  and  brought  forth  this  virile  child.  Thus 
in  the  twilight  of  the  modern  dawn  a  new  spirit 
appeared  which  has  been  steadily  extending  its 

3 


4  RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

influence,  and  embodying  itself  in  a  new  civiliza- 
tion. 

The  distinctive  peculiarity  of  this  spirit  is  its 
determination  to  get  at  the  reality  of  things.  For 
centuries  men  had  been  working  over  and  com- 
bining into  new  forms  the  material  of  Greek  and 
Roman  thought.  Instead  of  going  to  the  world 
itself,  and  to  current  life,  for  the  subject-matter  of 
science  and  philosophy,  they  inquired  what  the  an- 
cients thought  about  the  world  and  about  life.  The 
astronomy  of  Ptolemy,  the  philosophy  of  Aris- 
totle, the  theology  of  the  church  Fathers — these 
were  the  things  that  men  were  studying,  rather 
than  the  realities  back  of  them.  But  the  new 
spirit  awoke  to  the  consciousness  that  it  was  liv- 
ing in  a  world  of  its  own  —  a  world  of  present 
existences.  It  therefore  deserted  the  realm  of 
words  and  opinions,  traditions  and  theories,  the 
far-away  region  beyond  the  stars,  and  has  been 
giving  its  attention  with  irresistible  energy  to  the 
actual  world  in  which  it  finds  itself,  in  the  hope 
of  ascertaining  what  this  is  and  what  it  means. 

I.       THE  MODERN  SPIRIT  AND  MODERN  CULTURE. 

In  this  search  for  reality  the  new  spirit  first 
turned  to  the  study  of  that  which  was  nearest 
and  most  tangible — the  world  of  nature.  Here 
it  worked  out  a  new  body  of  science,  in  harmony 
with  the  realities  disclosed.  The  story  is  too 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  5 

familiar  to  require  many  words.  One  of  the  first 
and  most  significant  discoveries  was  that  in  the 
heavens  the  center  of  the  solar  system  is  not  the 
earth,  but  the  sun,  about  which  the  earth  and  its 
sister-planets  revolve.  The  whole  ancient  sys- 
tem of  elaborate  cycles  and  epicycles  collapsed 
as  the  real  heavens  and  earth  appeared.  Turning 
to  the  earth  itself,  the  new  temper  entered  a 
field  especially  congenial  for  its  operations.  The 
earth  was  found  to  be,  not  some  vague  and  limit- 
less plain  with  its  four  corners  resting  upon  mys- 
terious foundations,  but  a  comparatively  small 
globe  of  definite  dimensions,  which  could  be  cir- 
cumnavigated and  mapped  out.  This  discovery 
was  a  deathblow  to  numberless  bogies  and  super- 
stitions, and  gave  a  great  impetus  to  the  growing 
determination  to  know  the  real  world.  As  the 
work  of  exploration  proceeded,  new  continents 
appeared,  rising  out  of  the  mist  and  darkness 
that  had  hitherto  enshrouded  them.  The  oceans 
became  the  highway  of  life,  and  ships  sailed  to 
the  remotest  lands  of  earth  in  search  of  treasure 
and  adventure  and  new  homes  for  men.  The 
new  heavens  and  new  earth  thus  discovered  have 
become  the  subjects  of  the  minutest  and  most 
painstaking  investigation,  as  to  their  nature  and 
the  laws  operating  among  their  multitudinous 
elements.  The  result  is  the  vast  and  intricate 
body  of  natural  science  which  is  perhaps  the 


6  RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

most  characteristic  creation  of  the  modern 
spirit. 

But  while  the  new  movement  started  with 
nature,  and  became  assured  of  the  soundness  of 
its  method  in  natural  science,  it  did  not  stop 
here.  It  entered  the  realm  of  thought,  and 
demanded  there  also  a  return  to  reality.  It 
brought  philosophy  back  from  the  realm  of 
imaginative  speculation  and  required  of  it 
the  explanation,  not  of  the  hypothetical,  but 
of  the  real;  not  the  continuation  and  system- 
atization  of  the  thinking  of  the  past,  but  the 
interpretation  of  present  existence.  Descartes, 
doubting  everything  that  could  be  doubted,  and 
starting  over  again  with  present  reality  in  his 
noted  dictum,  cogito,  ergo  sum,  gave  expression 
to  the  genius  of  the  new  spirit,  at  the  very 
birth  of  modern  philosophy.  Beginning  thus 
with  the  present  reality  and  the  conscious  ego, 
there  have  come  into  existence  a  new  philosophy 
and  psychology  which  are  required  to  remember 
that  even  here,  in  the  most  abstract  of  all  realms, 
where  the  constant  tendency  is  toward  the  unreal 
and  visionary,  the  business  in  hand  is  the  expla- 
nation of  the  real  world  and  real  life. 

In  the  field  of  art  and  literature,  likewise,  this 
love  for  reality  manifests  itself.  After  long 
copying  of  the  ancient  models,  and  continued 
use  of  subjects  existing  only  in  the  imagination, 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  7 

modern  art  has  returned  to  nature  and  to  life  for 
its  most  characteristic  themes.  Literature  also 
manifests  the  same  tendency  toward  realism. 
In  writings  of  travel  and  description,  we  have, 
if  not  a  new  creation,  at  least  a  literature 
that  is  animated  by  an  entirely  different  spirit 
from  that  of  the  ancients.  The  whole  purpose 
and  effort  is  to  be  faithful  to  what  actually  ex- 
ists. In  fiction,  which  certainly  is  a  modern  cre- 
ation, there  may  seem  to  be  an  exception  to  this 
return  to  reality;  for  is  not  here  displayed  a 
peculiar  delight  in  the  "fictitious"  and  imagina- 
tive ?  Yet  fiction  has  as  its  object  the  portrayal 
of  life  in  a  way  truer  to  inner  reality  than  is  pos- 
sible in  any  other  form  of  literature.  It  is  there- 
fore a  true  child  of  the  modern  spirit ;  and  the 
demand  is  strong  today  that  it  shall  remain  loyal 
to  its  mission  by  the  faithful  representation  of 
life  as  it  is. 

Another  form  of  modern  literature  deserves 
special  attention.  The  new  Zeitgeist,  while  at 
first  concerned  chiefly  about  present  reality,  has 
been  forced,  in  the  effort  to  explain  the  present, 
to  widen  its  scope  and  undertake  the  study  of 
the  past.  This  has  given  birth  to  a  new  sci- 
ence of  history,  very  different  in  character  from 
the  ancient  history-writing.  Employing  the  same 
scientific  method  used  in  the  study  of  nature  and 
of  present  life,  and  animated  by  the  same  deter- 


mination  to  get  at  the  true  state  of  things,  the 
new  study  has  done  its  utmost  to  reproduce  the 
life  of  the  past  by  an  exhaustive  scrutiny  of  the 
records  that  have  survived.  As  little  room  as 
possible  has  been  left  for  guesswork  and  for  tra- 
ditional interpretations,  while  everything  has 
been  judged  by  comparison  with  the  records  at 
first  hand.  The  result,  without  question,  is  a 
clearer  perception  of  the  historical  continuity  of 
life  and  a  better  understanding  of  present  condi- 
tions. The  seeds  of  the  present  were  sown  in 
the  past :  the  fruit  is  better  estimated  because  of 
our  knowledge  of  the  seed  and  the  conditions  of 
its  growth.  Important  everywhere  in  the  world 
of  thought,  this  truth  has  special  significance 
here  because  of  its  bearing  upon  the  matter  dis- 
cussed in  the  following  pages.  Present-day 
theological  and  institutional  Christianity  did  not 
spring  full-grown  from  the  mind  of  God.  The 
understanding  of  the  past  life  of  Christianity, 
gained  by  the  new  study  of  history,  is  of  ines- 
timable value  as  a  factor  in  the  recovery  of  the 
gospel.  This  fact  will  become  apparent  as  the 
discussion  proceeds. 

After  its  search  for  reality  in  nature  by  means 
of  the  physical  sciences ;  in  the  realm  of  living 
beings  through  the  biological  sciences ;  in  the 
sphere  of  thought  and  action  through  psychol- 
ogy, philosophy,  art,  and  literature ;  and  for  the 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  9 

reality  of  the  past  through  the  sciences  of 
archaeology  and  history — the  modern  spirit  has 
now  turned  to  the  study  of  the  corporate  life  of 
man  with  the  same  desire  to  know  the  real  facts, 
and  has  given  birth  to  sociology,  the  youngest 
of  the  sciences.  The  social  relations  of  men, 
that  have  been  left  so  long  to  the  social  instinct 
and  to  a  limited  religious  sentiment,  are  now  being 
investigated  by  the  same  scientific  method  else- 
where employed,  and  the  facts  and  laws  of  com- 
munity life  are  coming  to  light. 

In  the  practical  activities  of  the  modern 
world,  as  well  as  in  the  search  for  truth,  the 
nature  of  the  new  spirit  reveals  itself.  Side  by 
side  with  discovery  has  gone  the  utilization  of 
the  new  knowledge  for  the  enrichment  of  life. 
Geographical  exploration  has  been  followed  by 
conquest  and  settlement,  until  nearly  every  hab- 
itable part  of  the  earth  is  known  and  occupied. 
Discovery  of  the  secrets  of  nature  has  been  fol- 
lowed by  the  invention  of  mechanical  contriv- 
ances for  "harnessing  the  forces  of  nature"  to 
do  the  world's  work.  Thus  has  been  created  a 
new  world  of  affairs,  in  which  the  stage  of  activ- 
ity has  vastly  widened,  a  new  commerce  of 
gigantic  dimensions  and  influence  has  been  built 
up,  and  new  means  of  transportation  and  com- 
munication have  so  bound  the  world  together 
that  isolated  life  has  given  place  to  the  closest 


io          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

industrial,  social,  and  national  interrelation  and 
interdependence. 

In  all  of  these  directions  it  is  evident  that  a 
new  force  is  at  work  in  the  modern  world — a 
spirit  that  has  no  love  for  a  priori  speculations, 
that  is  impatient  of  words  and  suppositions  and 
scholastic  subtleties,  that  will  take  nothing  upon 
the  authority  of  the  past,  and  that  is  not  over- 
reverent  of  the  traditions  of  the  Fathers ;  but 
rather,  with  unquenchable  thirst  and  incessant 
zeal  and  severe  scientific  method,  is  giving  itself 
to  the  task  of  discovering  the  realities  of  the 
universe  and  of  life,  influenced  more  or  less  in 
all  of  this  by  the  expectation  of  using  this  new 
knowledge  for  the  enrichment  of  human  life. 

The  activity  of  this  spirit  has  changed  the 
world's  civilization.  In  its  search  for  reality  in 
the  realms  of  nature  and  life  during  the  last  four 
hundred  years  the  new  energy  has  built  up  a 
culture  distinctively  its  own.  This  civilization 
does  not  merely  add  to  the  old ;  it  supersedes  it. 
It  contains  elements  that  often  necessitate  a  total 
break  with  ancient  culture,  because  they  are  ir- 
reconcilable with  it.  These  instances  have  been 
hinted  at  already,  and  do  not  need  to  be  given  in 
detail.  They  include  an  entirely  different  theory 
of  astronomy  and  of  the  relation  of  material 
bodies  to  one  another,  a  different  attitude  toward 
the  material  universe,  a  different  theory  of 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  n 

knowledge,  a  new  conception  of  the  value  of 
life,  a  new  interdependence  between  men  and  na- 
tions. In  short,  the  entire  world-view  has  changed. 
Much  that  was  an  integral  part  of  ancient  cul- 
ture has  dropped  out.  It  is  not  that  this  cul- 
ture has  been  argued  away,  nor  that  the  pres- 
ent conditions  have  been  adjusted  to  it,  but 
that  it  has  of  necessity  passed  into  oblivion  as 
the  new  and  independent  culture  has  taken  its 
place.  The  fundamental  character  of  the  change 
as  a  whole  is  well  illustrated  in  the  realm  of 
astronomy.  When  once  it  had  become  estab- 
lished beyond  reasonable  doubt  that  the  sun, 
and  not  the  earth,  is  the  center  of  our  planetary 
system,  and  that  the  mutual  relations  of  material 
bodies  are  regulated  by  the  universal  law  of 
gravitation,  then  the  whole  body  of  ancient  astro- 
nomical culture  sank  out  of  modern  life,  as  a 
thing  with  which  we  had  no  more  concern,  ex- 
cept for  archaeological  purposes.  The  world 
started  de  novo  in  astronomical  science,  and  there 
was  no  attempt  to  combine  the  new  culture  with 
the  old,  or  to  reconcile  the  two.  There  was  an 
absolute  break,  a  radical  revolution  in  thought. 
What  is  true  in  the  case  of  astronomy  is  true,  in 
general,  of  the  ancient  civilization.  The  modern 
world  started  afresh,  and  has  developed  a  culture 
of  its  own,  in  harmony  with  its  new  conceptions 
of  reality. 


12          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

II.   THE    MODERN   SPIRIT   AND    CHRISTIANITY. 

This  new  culture  is  sometimes  assigned  as 
the  cause  of  the  modern  religious  movement.  The 
changed  aspect  of  the  world's  civilization  is  said 
to  demand  a  new  view  of  religion.  And  in  a 
certain  sense  this  is  doubtless  true.  The  modern 
culture  has  reacted  upon  traditional  Christianity 
and  helped  the  movement  onward.  The  direct 
effect  of  the  new  culture,  however,  is  manifest  in 
the  demand  for  the  restatement  of  the  gospel, 
rather  than  in  efforts  for  its  recovery. 

The  real  cause  of  the  religious  movement 
beginning  with  the  advent  of  the  modern  era  lies 
back  of  the  new  culture,  in  the  spirit  that  created 
it.  The  same  Zeitgeist  that,  seeking  reality  in 
other  departments,  has  built  up  a  new  body  of 
knowledge  which  has  changed  the  character  of 
the  world's  culture  and  the  current  of  its  thought, 
turned  at  length  to  the  realm  of  religion  in  its 
ceaseless  search  for  truth,  and  demanded  reality 
there  also.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that 
the  new  spirit  would  leave  untouched  that 
realm  of  thought  to  which  the  human  mind 
continually  returns  as  containing,  after  all,  the 
deepest  and  most  permanent  reality  of  life. 
While  it  manifested  its  true  genius  in  choosing 
the  world  of  nature  as  its  starting-point,  yet 
when  here  it  had  developed  its  method  and 
gained  confidence  by  undeniable  successes,  it  was 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  13 

inevitable  that  it  should  turn  for  yet  greater 
conquests  to  the  realm  of  religion. 

When  this  demand  for  reality  began  to  make 
itself  felt  in  the  province  of  Christianity,  it  found 
there  an  elaborate  ecclesiastical  system  and  a 
traditional  theology  holding  undisputed  sway. 
The  Roman  Catholic  church  had  perfected  its 
organization,  and  by  its  priests  and  sacraments, 
its  confessions,  penances,  and  indulgences,  now 
stood  between  men  and  God,  as  mediator  of  sal- 
vation. This  ecclesiastical  institution  was  ac- 
companied and  upheld  by  a  congenial  system  of 
doctrine  which,  germinating  in  the  same  soil  and 
developing  under  the  same  conditions,  had  almost 
entirely  ceased  to  draw  its  material  from  the 
original  Christian  sources,  and  indeed,  by  its  own 
findings,  denied  the  necessity  of  doing  so.  While 
pretending  to  be  the  authorized  explication  of 
the  gospel,  it  had  become  hopelessly  entangled 
with  metaphysical  speculations  and  traditional 
problems,  which  both  rendered  it  incapable  of 
doing  justice  to  gospel  truth  and  at  the  same 
time  removed  it  far  away  from  the  interests  of 
men  in  the  actual  world  of  affairs.  This,  also, 
had  come  to  stand  between  men  and  God  by  de- 
manding its  own  acceptance  as  a  condition  of 
salvation  and  of  fellowship  in  the  saving  church. 

Here  in  the  realm  of  religion,  likewise,  the 
scientific  spirit,  true  to  its  practical  genius,  laid 


i4          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

hold  of  that  which  was  most  tangible.  It  did 
not  begin  with  the  speculative  dogmatics  of  the 
church,  but  attacked  the  ecclesiastical  institu- 
tion which  it  found  blocking  the  way  to  religious 
reality. 

This  is  the  meaning  of  the  Reformation  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  It  was  the  modern  real- 
ity-loving spirit  grappling  in  a  life-and-death 
struggle  with  the  man-made  traditional  eccle- 
siastical system  which  had  thrust  itself  in  be- 
tween men  and  God.  Martin  Luther  was  the 
incarnation  of  this  spirit  in  its  religious  activity. 
When  it  spoke  forth  from  him,  however,  it  was 
quickly  answered  from  far  and  near,  showing 
that  in  him  it  had  not  come  to  a  premature 
birth. 

The  Reformation  succeeded  in  its  task.  It 
gave  men  immediate  access  to  God  without  in- 
tervention of  priest  and  pope,  and  made  salva- 
tion consist  primarily  in  right  personal  relations 
with  God.  It  tore  down  the  interloping  media- 
torial fictions  of  priesthood  and  ecclesiasticism 
and  set  men  free.  It  did  more.  By  opening  the 
Bible  to  the  people,  it  brought  Christianity  back 
into  touch  with  its  original  sources,  and  prepared 
the  way  for  further  progress. 

But,  while  the  Lutheran  Reformation  accom- 
plished so  much,  still  it  was  only  a  partial  success, 
for  the  reason  that  it  was  essentially  only  a  prac- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  15 

tical  reformation ;  although,  parenthetically,  the 
paradox  may  be  ventured  that  this  was  the  cause 
of  the  success  that  it  did  achieve.  It  contented 
itself  with  attacking  the  corrupt  ecclesiastical 
organization  and  the  false  salvation  that  this 
offered,  leaving  generically  untouched  the  elab- 
orate system  of  ecclesiastical  dogmatics.  For, 
although  the  Reformation  led  to  important 
modifications  of  theology,  these  affected  only 
the  practical  issues  that  had  been  fought  out. 
Indeed,  the  modern  spirit  seemed  to  have  ex- 
hausted its  energies  in  the  struggle  with  the 
church,  and  left  traditional  theology  to  tighten 
its  grip  and  extend  its  sway. 

The  result  of  the  perpetuation  of  the  old  dog- 
matics was  a  new  loss  of  religious  reality.  Prot- 
estantism discarded  the  Catholic  church  institu- 
tion and  left  to  theology  the  undisputed  field, 
giving  it  a  place  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  im- 
portance, and  extending  its  jurisdiction  into 
regions  where  it  has  no  right  to  rule.  And  so  it 
came  about  that,  as  in  the  former  time  God  must 
be  approached  through  priest  and  sacrament,  so 
now  he  was  to  be  apprehended  through  an 
elaborate  theological  system,  upon  the  accept- 
ance of  which  salvation  was  made  to  depend. 
Words  and  theories  and  scholastic  distinctions 
insinuated  themselves  between  man  and  God  as 
insistently  as  before.  This  was  the  condition  of 


1 6          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

things  when  the  dormant  modern  spirit  awoke 
again  to  life  in  the  domain  of  religion,  and  began 
anew  the  search  for  truth.  This  time,  as  before, 
it  attacked  that  which  it  found  standing  between 
itself  and  reality.  But  now,  instead  of  the 
church  institution,  the  obstacle  was  the  mediaeval 
Catholic  theology,  worked  over  into  the  Protes- 
tant creeds.  Hence  the  new  Reformation,  in  the 
midst  of  which  we  are  now  living,  partakes  of  a 
theological  character.  The  theology  of  religion 
is  asked  to  give  way  to  religion  itself.  When  it 
is  finished,  if  successful,  it  will  have  completed 
the  Lutheran  Reformation  by  supplementing  the 
practical  reforms  therein  achieved  with  a  theo- 
logical reconstruction  that  will  assure  the  perma- 
nence of  those  results  and  give  to  Protestantism 
a  theology  that  will  do  justice  to  its  fundamental 
principles. 

In  this  new  task  the  modern  spirit,  still  true 
to  its  genius,  did  not  begin  with  the  speculative 
theology,  where  the  difficulty  really  was,  but  laid 
hold  of  the  tangible  Christian  literature  as  con- 
tained in  the  Bible  and  the  existing  records  of 
the  development  of  Christianity  in  history.  It 
has  undertaken  the  investigation  of  these  records 
with  enthusiastic  eagerness,  determined  to  know 
the  facts  concerning  the  origin  of  Christianity, 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  and  his  apostles,  and  the 
history  of  the  church  since  New  Testament  times. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  17 

This  has  given  to  the  movement  a  historical  and 
exegetical  character,  and  has  led  to  the  creation 
of  a  new  science  of  biblical  interpretation,  utiliz- 
ing the  principles  of  the  inductive  method,  and 
a  new  science  of  church  history,  based  upon 
the  principles  of  modern  historical  research. 

The  general  result  of  the  return  to  the  Chris- 
tian sources  has  been,  and  is  to  be  more  and 
more,  a  cutting  beneath  the  whole  traditional 
theological  development,  or,  perhaps  better,  a 
going  back  of  it,  to  the  New  Testament  gospel 
— a  movement  from  traditional  Christianity  to 
New  Testament  Christianity  in  the  search  for 
religious  reality.  The  new  Reformation  is  thus 
an  inherent  necessity  of  the  modern  demand  for 
reality  in  the  realm  of  religion. 

If  such  reality  is  to  be  found,  there  is  a  wide- 
spread conviction  that  it  will  not  be  in  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  ecclesiastical  institution  nor  in  the 
Protestant  theological  systems,  but  rather  in 
immediate  connection  with  that  wonderful  per- 
sonality that  is  back  of  church  and  creed  alike 
— the  historical  Jesus  of  Nazareth  whose  life  and 
teachings  are  recorded  in  the  New  Testament 
literature.  We  have  turned  from  the  church  and 
the  creed  to  the  Christ.  The  belief  is  daily  gain- 
ing strength  that  our  hope  of  rinding  what  we  seek 
lies  in  a  clearer  understanding  of  him,  a  closer 
sympathy  with  him,  and  a  more  devoted  loyalty  to 


1 8          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

him.  Here,  after  much  conflict  and  controversy 
not  yet  wholly  ended,  the  modern  spirit  is  com- 
ing more  and  more  to  rest  in  that  religious  reality 
which  has  so  long  been  the  goal  of  its  earnest 
seeking.1 

'It  is  here  assumed  that  the  unadulterated  gospel  of  Jesus 
gives  the  final  religious  reality.  To  prove  this  lies  beyond  the 
scope  of  the  present  discussion.  For  a  justification  of  the  as- 
sumption see  Introduction,  pp.  xxiv-xxvi. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE   OBSCURATION   OF   THE   GOSPEL   IN  THE 
COURSE  OF  ITS  HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT. 

IN  the  history  of  Christian  thought  there  are 
three  periods  of  special  importance :  First,  the 
period  of  the  early  church,  including  the  first 
three  hundred  years  of  its  existence.  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  several  centuries  that  continued  the 
tendencies  already  started,  and  that  are  of  interest 
chiefly  because  of  the  systems  of  a  few  great 
theologians.  Second,  the  period  of  the  Lutheran 
Reformation.  Third,  the  post-Reformation  pe- 
riod, leading  up  to,  and  including,  the  present 
religious  movement. 

The  first  period,  including  the  following  devel- 
opment up  to  the  Reformation,  will  be  considered 
in  the  present  chapter.  The  second  and  third 
periods  will  form  the  subject  of  the  succeeding 
chapter. 

I.      THE  EARLY  TRANSFORMATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Doctrinally,  the  period  of  the  early  church  is 
the  most  important  in  its  entire  history.  It  was 
in  every  way  the  formative  age  of  Christianity, 
and  determined  the  course  of  the  whole  subse- 
quent development.  Two  things  are  of  paramount 

19 


20          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

significance :  first,  the  organization  of  the  eccle- 
siastical institution  ;  and,  second,  the  contempo- 
rary and  supplementary  growth  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical dogmatics.  The  first  was  due  chiefly  to 
Roman  initiative,  the  second  to  Greek.  In  both 
there  was  a  radical  transformation  of  primitive 
Christianity. 

The  departure  from  New  Testament  Christian- 
ity in  the  matter  of  church  organization  is  now 
generally  recognized,  at  least  throughout  the 
Protestant  world.  That  was  the  point  at  issue 
in  the  Lutheran  Reformation.  The  theological 
transformation,  however,  although  it  involved  a 
still  more  fundamental  change,  was  not  discovered 
by  the  Reformation,  and  is  not  universally  admit- 
ted even  yet.  But  it  has  gradually  been  gaining 
recognition,  and  is  without  question  the  real  issue 
in  the  new  religious  movement. 

It  will  be  necessary  to  consider  these  two 
aspects  of  the  subject  at  further  length. 

The  ecclesiastical  transformation. 

The  development  leading  to  the  gradual  or- 
ganization of  the  Catholic  church  into  a  com- 
pact and  coherent  ecclesiastical  body  is  now 
established  with  a  fair  degree  of  historical  cer- 
tainty. The  church  at  first  was  no  hard-and-fast 
institution.  It  was  a  free  company  naturally 
united,  not  by  mechanical  ties,  but  by  the  com- 
mon possession  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  by  com- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  21 

mon  hopes  and  aims.  All  else  was  incidental  to 
this  fundamental  character.  In  government  it 
was  simple  and  democratic.  There  was  no 
marked  distinction  between  clergy  and  laity.  In 
each  church  those  deemed  best  fitted  to  look 
after  the  affairs  of  the  Christian  community  were 
chosen  by  their  brethren  to  do  so.  Their  duties 
were  mostly  confined  to  directing  the  financial 
affairs  of  the  church,  caring  for  the  poor,  and 
administering  the  ordinances,  which  as  yet  had 
no  sacerdotal  importance.  The  teaching  and 
preaching  were  at  first  done  chiefly  by  the  apos- 
tles and  by  traveling  evangelists  and  teachers. 
Well  within  New  Testament  times,  however,  the 
practice  was  instituted  of  selecting  in  each  con- 
gregation men  especially  adapted  to  teach  the 
Word,  and  appointing  them  to  that  task.  Thus 
there  arose  a  body  of  clergy  more  or  less  sepa- 
rated from  the  laity,  yet  with  no  sacerdotal  line 
of  distinction.  The  clergy  were  not  priests,  save 
only  as  all  Christians  are. 

Gradually,  however,  conditions  operated  to 
bring  about  a  new  state  of  things. 

In  the  first  place,  as  the  church  came  into 
contact  with  the  sin  of  the  world,  and  encoun- 
tered the  consequent  opposition  and  persecution, 
it  became  more  clearly  differentiated  as  a  sepa- 
rate body.  Then,  as  the  early  spiritual  fervor 
and  inspiration  waned,  the  importance  of  the 


22          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

institution  was  magnified.  The  efficacy  of  the 
ordinances  was  emphasized  in  proportion  to  the 
diminution  of  spiritual  power.  Gradually  salva- 
tion came  to  be  regarded  as  possible  only  through 
the  church  and  its  ordinances  ;  and  thus  the 
church  came  to  have  an  entirely  new  significance 
and  value. 

In  the  next  place,  within  the  church  itself  a 
change  was  going  on  in  the  growth  of  a  sacer- 
dotal clergy.  As  emphasis  came  to  be  placed 
upon  the  ordinances  of  the  church,  new  impor- 
tance attached  to  their  administration.  The 
early,  but  not  inviolable,  custom  according  to 
which  the  clergy  administered  the  ordinances 
developed  into  the  theory  that  this  function  was 
their  prerogative  exclusively.  As  the  ordinances 
acquired  a  wholly  sacerdotal  character,  the 
clergy  were  transformed  into  a  priesthood,  with 
power  to  grant  or  deny  salvation  by  admitting 
to,  or  excluding  from,  participation  in  the  sav- 
ing sacraments.  The  gulf  between  the  clergy 
and  the  laity  had  appeared. 

This  movement  was  accelerated  by  the  fur- 
ther fact  that  the  clergy  came  to  be  regarded  as 
the  custodians  of  the  truth.  After  the  apostles 
had  passed  away,  where  was  authority  to  be 
found?  In  the  traditional  apostolic  teaching. 
But  who  was  to  decide  what  this  was  in  its  purity, 
and  who  was  to  declare  its  meaning  authorita- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  23 

tively?  Heresies  arose,  and  varying  versions  of 
the  teaching,  and  manifold  interpretations.  The 
church  was  in  danger  of  disintegration,  and  the 
need  of  authoritative  teaching  was  sorely  felt. 
Under  such  circumstances  the  clergy  gradually 
arrogated  to  themselves,  or  were  accorded,  the 
right  of  interpreting  the  apostolic  faith.  They 
thus  became  guardians  of  the  saving  truth,  and 
the  gulf  between  them  and  the  laity  became  yet 
wider. 

Still  another  factor  entered  into  the  change,  in 
connection  with  the  practical  administration  of  af- 
fairs. Just  as  heresies  appeared  for  lack  of  authori- 
tative interpretation  of  truth,  so  irregularities, 
disorders,  and  schisms  arose  in  the  independent 
churches  for  lack  of  authoritative  government. 
Democratic  liberty  degenerated  into  schismatic 
license.  From  the  other  side,  there  was  a 
natural  movement  on  the  part  of  the  clergy. 
The  most  capable  and  influential  men  in  the 
church  community  had  been  chosen  as  elders  to 
direct  the  interests  of  the  body.  As  disorder  and 
schism  appeared,  these  men,  by  virtue  both  of 
office  and  of  influence,  naturally  gained  special 
prominence  and  importance  in  the  effort  to  pre- 
serve harmony.  Thus  the  administration  of  affairs 
gradually  fell  more  and  more  into  their  hands. 
Later,  when  the  unity,  not  of  individual  churches, 
but  of  Christendom,  was  under  consideration,  it 


24          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

was  from  the  ranks  of  the  clergy  that  represent- 
atives went  up  to  the  oecumenical  councils  and 
there  legislated  for  the  universal  church,  respect- 
ing both  the  orthodox  doctrine  and  the  required 
conduct. 

In  the  changes  above  considered  appear  in 
germ  the  distinctive  features  of  the  early  Catho- 
lic, and  its  successor,  the  Roman  Catholic, 
church.  There  is  a  sacerdotal  ecclesiastical 
institution  which  by  its  teaching  and  ordinances 
mediates  salvation  ;  while  within  the  church  itself 
the  clergy  have  acquired  the  exclusive  right  to 
administer  the  saving  ordinances,  interpret  the 
saving  truth,  and  exercise  the  functions  of  gov- 
ernment. There  is  a  fixed  gulf  between  the  laity, 
who  now  are  the  supplicating  recipients  of  the 
gracious  favors  of  salvation,  and  the  clergy,  who 
have  become  a  priesthood,  with  power  to  admit 
to,  or  exclude  from,  participation  in  the  divine 
blessings.  In  principle  the  transformation  of  the 
apostolic  church  into  the  Catholic  church  is 
complete. 

The  keynote  of  the  succeeding  development 
was  the  contest  for  precedence  among  the  clergy 
themselves.  The  terms  "presbyter"  or  "  elder," 
and  "bishop"  or  "overseer,"  were  probably  used 
interchangeably  at  first,to  denote  the  men  selected 
to  direct  the  affairs  of  the  religious  community. 
But  it  would  seem  that  soon  the  term  "bishop" 


.OF  THE  GOSPEL  25 

came  to  be  applied  exclusively  to  the  president 
or  chairman  of  the  presbyters ;  he  still  being 
elected  from  their  number,  and  being  one  of  them, 
with  no  different  rank  or  functions  except  such  as 
naturally  pertained  to  his  chairmanship.  By 
degrees,  however,  in  the  midst  of  the  contro- 
versies and  changes  of  the  early  years  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  influence  of  the  bishops  increased, 
until  they  became  a  separate  and  higher  rank  of 
clergy,  claiming  to  be  the  direct  successors  of 
the  apostles,  and,  therefore,  the  sole  custodians 
of  the  apostolic  tradition,  and  the  possessors  of 
apostolic  authority.  The  contest  for  precedence 
then  became  limited  to  the  bishops  of  the  "apos- 
tolic sees."  The  metropolitan  bishop  first  ac- 
quired jurisdiction  over  the  neighboring  country 
bishops,  then  the  bishops  of  the  apostolic  sees 
gained  jurisdiction  throughout  their  respective 
regions.  The  controversy  resulted  in  the  pre- 
cedence of  the  bishop  of  Rome  in  the  West,  and 
in  the  establishment  of  the  coherent  Roman 
Catholic  hierarchical  organization,  with  the  pope 
at  its  head  and  Rome  as  the  center  of  influence. 
In  this  later  development  among  the  clergy, 
however,  nothing  was  added  in  principle  to  the 
condition  of  things  noted  above.  This  con- 
flict accompanied  the  others  from  the  first  and 
helped  them  on,  and  then  continued  the  develop- 
ment. In  fact,  the  whole  movement  was  one, 


26          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

working  itself  out  along  these  various  lines 
toward  a  unified  and  compactly  organized  church. 

This  process  was  by  no  means  simple,  nor 
always  clear.  Many  and  complex  factors  were 
at  work.  The  conditions  were  peculiar  and  called 
urgently  for  authority  and  unity ;  the  Roman 
genius  for  organization  found  a  fitting  field  for 
operation;  and  it  must  also  be  admitted  that 
human  nature  played  no  unimportant  part.  It  is 
not  necessary  here  to  enter  into  an  analysis  of 
these  factors,  nor  to  trace  their  intertwinings. 
Neither  is  it  incumbent  to  maintain  or  deny  the 
historical  necessity  of  the  movement.  It  is 
sufficient  that  we  recognize  its  occurrence  and 
the  condition  of  things  resulting.  In  its  main 
outlines,  few  scholars  now  question  this  historical 
rise  and  development  of  the  Catholic  church,  in 
post-apostolic  times. 

This  transformation  of  the  New  Testament 
church  was  not  accomplished  without  a  struggle. 
Montanism  was  a  widespread  and  vigorous  pro- 
test against  the  despiritualization  of  the  church 
and  the  curtailment  of  its  freedom  by  the  substi- 
tution of  a  highly  organized  and  firmly  fixed 
ecclesiastical  authority  for  its  early  democratic 
liberty.  Although  Montanism  was  suppressed, 
yet  the  protest  was  continued  by  individuals  and 
isolated  sects  from  that  day  until  the  great 
Reformation. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  27 

The  theological  transformation. 

Parallel  with  the  development  of  this  ecclesi- 
astical institution  there  was  formed  a  kindred 
ecclesiastical  system  of  dogma  co-ordinate  with 
it,  involving  it  and  involved  in  it.  They  grew 
up  side  by  side  in  the  soil  of  the  same  civiliza- 
tion ;  they  naturally  rest  upon  each  other,  and 
eventually  they  must  stand  or  fall  together. 

This  is  more  apparent,  and  perhaps  also  more 
strictly  true,  concerning  the  distinctively  Roman 
theology  of  the  church.  It  was  this  especially 
that  took  form  in  immediate  connection  with  the 
ecclesiastical  development  above  described.  In- 
deed, the  theology  was  the  theoretical  justifica- 
tion of  that  which  the  historical  movement  was 
working  out  in  institutional  form.  Not  that  it 
was  always  consciously  apologetic,  nor  that  it 
always  followed  after  the  other.  The  theolo- 
gians were  in  earnest  in  their  convictions,  and 
often  the  theory  led  the  practical  movement 
instead  of  resulting  from  it.  Theory  and  his- 
torical process  were  organically  connected. 

The  teaching  here  involved  was  the  practi- 
cal, as  distinguished  from  the  speculative,  theol- 
ogy of  the  church.  It  had  to  do  with  the 
church  institution  and  with  salvation  ;  and  there- 
fore affected  the  theology  relating  to  the  divine 
authority  of  the  church,  the  organization  and 
prerogatives  of  the  priesthood,  the  character  of 


28          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

the  sacraments,  and  the  position  and  duties  of 
the  laity.  This  does  not  exhaust  the  Roman 
influence  upon  theology,  but  it  includes  the  most 
significant  things  due  to  Roman  initiative.  The 
further  influence  of  Rome  can  be  considered  bet- 
ter later  on. 

The  main  stream  of  theological  development, 
properly  so  called,  takes  its  rise,  not  among 
Roman  surroundings,  but  from  the  Grecian  civili- 
zation. Christian  theology  is  the  continuation  of 
Greek  philosophy,  both  in  its  fundamental  char- 
acteristic, in  its  method  and  terminology,  and  in 
the  subjects  with  which  it  concerns  itself. 

The  fundamental  characteristic  of  Greek  phi- 
losophy was  its  emphasis  of  knowledge.  To  know 
was  the  only  thing  worth  while.  A  more  certain 
and  more  clearly  articulated  system  of  truth 
was  what  distinguished  the  Greek  philosopher 
from  the  ordinary  man.  It  was  in  this  that 
he  placed  his  hope,  inasmuch  as  the  posses- 
sion of  the  true  knowledge  was  itself  salvation. 
When  the  educated  Greek,  with  this  mental 
temper,  was  attracted  to  Christianity  he  saw  in  it 
a  new  knowledge  ;  and  he  accepted  it  because  he 
regarded  it  as  the  perfect  philosophy,  more  surely 
true  than  any  other,  since  it  was  based  on  divine 
revelation.  In  the  early  days  of  Greek  influence 
Christianity  therefore  came  to  be  regarded  as  a 
revealed  body  of  knowledge.  This  was  the  posi- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  29 

tion  of  the  early  Christian  apologists,  who  were 
in  reality  philosophers  defending  Christianity  as 
the  perfect  wisdom ;  and  of  the  early  theolo- 
gians, who  were  philosophers  systematizing  this 
new  body  of  truth.  Thus  the  Greek  emphasis  of 
knowledge  as  the  thing  of  first  importance  was 
transferred  to  Christianity  almost  at  the  begin- 
ning of  its  history. 

But  the  Greek  philosopher  not  only  turned  to 
the  investigation  and  systematization  of  this 
new  material  with  the  same  underlying  presup- 
positions which  he  had  before ;  he  also  carried 
over  with  him  into  Christianity  the  terminology 
and  the  dialectical  method  which  had  been  devel- 
oped in  Greek  philosophy.  Here  in  the  philo- 
sophical realm  the  meanings  of  words  had 
become  fixed,  some  of  them  after  a  long  and 
complex  course  of  development.  When  Chris- 
tianity began  to  be  thought  out,  and  stated  in 
terms  of  thought — that  is,  when  Christian  the- 
ology began  to  form  — it  naturally  and  necessa- 
rily expressed  itself  in  the  existing  terminology. 
That  meant  that  the  old  meaning  of  words  at- 
tached to  the  new  truth  which  they  were  used  to 
express.  Doubtless  this  meaning  was  in  many 
cases  more  or  less  modified  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  new  truth,  but  the  words  never  forgot  their 
nativity  ;  the  old  coloring  remained,  and  greatly 
influenced  the  early  theology.  The  same  thing 


30          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

is  true  of  the  philosophical  dialectics.  It  en- 
tered into  the  discussion  of  Christian  truth  with- 
out essential  change,  continuing  in  theology  the 
spirit  and  method  of  Greek  philosophy.  Thus, 
both  by  its  terminology  and  by  its  forms  of  rea- 
soning, philosophy  had  formed  the  mold  into 
which  the  unorganized  Christian  material  was 
poured.  It  was  not  strange,  it  was  inevitable, 
that  theology  should  take  the  form  of  this  highly 
perfected  receptacle  of  thought. 

Here,  then,  was  the  Greek  philosophical  mind, 
with  its  firmly  fixed  conviction  of  the  primary 
importance  of  knowledge  as  the  way  of  salva- 
tion, with  its  dialectical  method,  and  with  its 
established  terminology,  giving  itself  to  the 
Christian  tradition  regarded  as  a  new  divine  phi- 
losophy made  certain  by  revelation.  It  is  not 
denied,  and  does  not  need  to  be  denied,  that  the 
men  who  did  this  were  bound  to  the  new  religion 
by  personal  evangelical  faith  as  well.  Indeed, 
they  could  not  have  done  justice  to  Christianity 
as  a  philosophy  if  they  had  not  been  moved  by 
it  as  a  religion.  The  epoch-making  significance 
of  the  thing  lay  just  in  this,  that  it  was  an 
attempt  to  express  this  religion,  both  as  objec- 
tive fact  and  subjective  experience,  in  the  terms 
of  philosophy,  and  by  its  method.  The  attempt 
was  natural  and  necessary.  Given  the  mind 
trained,  as  was  the  Greek,  to  habits  of  reasoning 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  31 

and  philosophical  expression,  and  bring  into  con- 
tact with  it  new  material  for  thought,  and  it  was 
inevitable  that  the  effort  should  be  made  to  ad- 
just this  new  material  to  the  existing  knowledge. 
The  conditions  presented  a  new  problem  for 
philosophical  solution. 

The  inherent  necessity  of  this  attempt  was 
aided  by  outside  causes  which  furnished  the  im- 
mediate occasion  of  the  movement.  The  gospel 
was  all-inclusive  in  offering  its  blessings :  "  who- 
soever "  would,  might  receive.  The  church,  there- 
fore, soon  included  men  of  all  kinds  of  mental 
tendency,  all  stages  of  intellectual  development, 
and  all  shades  of  belief,  united  only  in  the  com- 
mon faith  and  the  tradition  upon  which  it  rested. 
What  was  to  be  the  criterion  of  the  true  Chris- 
tian teaching  ?  While  it  was  imperative  that  the 
reflecting  Greek  mind  should  try  to  make  some 
kind  of  adjustment  between  the  Christian  faith 
and  existing  culture,  yet  at  first  it  was  strongly 
felt  that  Christianity  was  a  faith  and  not  a  philos- 
ophy. How  far,  then,  could  a  man  go  in  his 
philosophizing  and  still  remain  a  Christian? 
The  New  Testament  canon  had  not  yet  been 
formed  to  serve  as  an  authoritative  standard  of 
belief,  and  the  allegorical  interpretation  of  the 
Old  Testament  made  it  susceptible  of  any  de- 
sired meaning. 

In  these  circumstances,  the  same  causes  that 


32          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

led  to  the  ecclesiastical  development  which 
placed  the  authoritative  interpretation  of  Chris- 
tian truth  in  the  keeping  of  the  bishops  led 
to  the  kindred  theological  development  which 
established  the  "orthodox"  statement  of  that 
truth.  The  first  known  expression  of  this  kind 
that  gained  any  general  currency  was  the  so- 
called  "  Apostles'  Creed,"  of  which  the  oldest 
form  is  the  Roman  Symbol,  in  use  in  the  church 
at  Rome  before  the  middle  of  the  second  cen- 
tury. At  first  this  was  not  at  all  a  creed  in  the 
later  sense  of  that  term.  It  was  probably  merely 
an  expansion  of  the  Baptismal  Confession — a 
statement  of  some  of  the  great  Christian  facts, 
used  as  a  confession  of  faith  by  the  candidate 
for  baptism. 

Then  came  the  determinative  conflict  with 
Gnosticism.  Gnosticism  was  the  first  systematic 
attempt  to  reduce  Christianity  to  a  philosophy, 
dominated  by  the  Greek  conception  of  the  para- 
mount importance  of  knowledge.  This  effort, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  not  born  in  anight ;  the  phil- 
osophic mind  had  already  touched  the  problem 
here  and  there.  But  in  Gnosticism  the  movement 
attained  consciousness,  and  became  a  definite 
struggle.  There  was  a  deliberate  attempt  to 
transform  the  pistis  into  a  gnosis. 

Just  as  Montanism  was  a  protest  against  the 
growing  Catholic  church  as  inconsistent  with  the 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  33 

genius  of  the  gospel,  so  there  now  ensued  also  a 
bitter  struggle  against  Gnosticism,  caused  by  the 
conviction  that  the  gospel  was  not  a  system  of 
knowledge  by  the  acceptance  of  which  salvation 
is  secured.  The  enemies  of  Gnosticism  literally 
stood  forthe/zzY^  that  was  once  for  all  delivered 
unto  the  saints.  But  alas!  they  that  take  the 
sword  shall  perish  with  the  sword.  Instead  of 
fighting  for  the  faith  with  the  weapons  of  faith, 
its  friends  undertook  its  defense  with  the  weap- 
ons of  Gnosticism.  They  formulated  a  body 
of  knowledge  supposed  to  be  in  accordance  with 
the  rule  of  faith,  and  therefore  "orthodox,"  and 
set  this  up  over  against  the  heretical  system 
taught  by  the  Gnostics,  and  overcame  it.  But 
in  so  doing,  the  very  thing  was  accomplished 
in  principle  that  Gnosticism  was  contending  for : 
the  idea  became  firmly  rooted  that  Christianity 
is  a  system  of  knowledge  which  must  be  sub- 
scribed to  by  its  adherents.  The  Rule  of  Faith, 
"lexfidei"  explained  and  expanded,  was  transformed 
from  a  confession  that  expresses  existing  faith  into  a 
creed  that  conditions  the  existence  of  faith.  An 
entirely  new  place  was  thus  given  to  knowledge. 
In  the  contest  with  heretical  Gnosticism  an 
orthodox  Gnosticism  had  gained  a  permanent 
place  in  the  church.  The  conquered  was  con- 
queror :  in  orthodox  Christianity  the  pistis  had 
become  a  gnosis ;  and  the  first  irrevocable  step 


34          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

was  taken  toward  the  identification  of  the  gos- 
pel, the  life  of  faith  in  God,  with  theology,  the 
rational  explication  of  that  faith. 

The  principle  of  Gnosticism,  after  gaining  a 
foothold  in  the  church,  was  firmly  established 
there  by  the  succeeding  development.  The 
apologists  defended  Christianity  as  the  new  and 
improved  philosophy,  the  truth  of  which  was  at- 
tested by  divine  revelation,  and  the  superiority 
of  which  was  manifest  by  a  comparison  with 
heathen  philosophies.  Here  are  discovered  the 
beginnings  of  orthodox  Christian  dogmatics. 
Irenaeus  and  Tertullian,  with  their  contemporaries, 
took  the  philosophical  conception  for  granted  in 
their  polemical  warfare  with  heresies.  This  is 
true  in  spite  of  Tertullian's  invectives  against  phi- 
losophy. No  one  of  the  early  writers  did  more 
than  he  to  emphasize  in  theology  the  Greek  con- 
ception of  the  importance  of  right  knowledge. 
His  influence  in  this  direction  was  so  great  that 
he  may  properly  be  regarded  as  the  father  of  or- 
thodoxy in  the  western  church. 

But  that  which  underlay  the  work  of  apolo- 
gists and  polemicists  came  to  clearest  conscious- 
ness in  the  Alexandrian  school,  especially  in 
Origen.  These  men  undertook  directly  and  sys- 
tematically the  task  of  reducing  Christianity  to  a 
philosophy.  In  Origen  is  found  in  successful 
completion  that  which  the  Gnostics  vainly  at- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  35 

tempted.  It  is  not  the  same  system,  to  be  sure  ; 
but  that  is  a  matter  of  minor  importance.  Chris- 
tianity has  become  thoroughly  transformed  into 
a  theological  system  which  is  generically  the  con- 
tinuation of  Greek  philosophy,  both  in  its  funda- 
mental conception  of  the  primary  importance  of 
knowledge,  in  its  method,  in  its  terminology,  and 
in  its  speculative  spirit.  Just  as  in  the  ecclesi- 
astical development  the  Christian  faith,  which 
was  at  the  first  a  confident  and  loyal  trust  in  Jesus 
Christ,  was  displaced  by  faith  in  the  church  and 
its  ordinances,  so  here  in  the  theological  develop- 
ment there  occurs  another  displacement,  and  one 
even  more  radical :  this  Christian  faith,  or  reli- 
gious trust  in  Christ,  has  been  transformed  into 
an  act  of  intellectual  assent  to  a  body  of  philo- 
sophical knowledge,  disguised  as  Christian  theol- 
ogy, upon  the  acceptance  of  which  salvation 
depends.1 

1  If  anything  more  than  this  bare  outline  were  attempted  here 
it  would  be  difficult  to  know  where  to  stop,  the  material  is  so 
abundant  and  complex.  For  details  the  histories  of  the  movement 
must  be  consulted,  and  fortunately  these  now  approximate  agree- 
ment with  reference  to  the  facts.  Two  things,  however,  ought  to 
be  noticed,  in  addition  to  what  is  said  in  the  text.  In  the  first 
place,  the  point  of  attachment  for  the  Greek  speculation  was  the 
doctrine  of  the  Logos,  which  gradually  established  itself  in  the 
creed  of  the  church  during  the  third  century.  On  this  point 
Harnack  says  :  "The  formula  of  the  Logos,  as  it  was  almost  uni- 
versally understood,  legitimized  speculation,  that  is,  Neopla- 
tonic  philosophy,  within  the  creed  of  the  church.  When  Christ 


36          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

II.     FROM    ORIGEN   TO    THE    REFORMATION. 

The  intervening  period  up  to  the  Lutheran 
Reformation  does  not  require  detailed  considera- 
tion in  this  discussion.  It  only  developed  the 
theological  germ  that  had  already  been  success- 
fully planted  in  the  church  by  Origen.  During 
the  first  part  of  the  period,  through  the  oecumeni- 
cal councils,  the  results  of  philosophical  specula- 
tion in  theology  were  crystallized  into  the  dogmas 
of  the  Trinity  and  the  Person  of  Christ,  which  have 
always  constituted  dogma  par  excellence.  At  the 

was  designated  the  incarnate  Logos  of  God  this  implied  a  defi- 
nite philosophical  view  of  God,  of  creation,  and  of  the  world ; 
and  the  baptismal  confession  became  a  compendium  of  scientific 
dogmatics,  that  is,  of  a  system  of  doctrine  entwined  with  the 
metaphysics  of  Plato  and  the  Stoics."  Christ  was  first  identified 
with  the  Logos,  and  the  Logos  was  then  introduced  into  the  inner 
circle  of  God's  being.  This  was  the  line  of  development  along 
which  dogma  gained  a  recognized  place  in  the  church. 

The  second  point  concerns  the  completion  of  the  movement 
which  resulted  in  the  triumph  of  the  dogmatic  conception 
of  Christianity.  In  the  text  this  is  represented  as  taking  place 
in  Origen.  While  that  is  true  in  a  general  way,  yet  it  is  not 
strictly  accurate.  Origen  still  recognized  that  his  theology  was 
something  different  from  the  traditional  apostolic  faith.  He 
maintained  only  that  it  was  the  scientific  exposition  of  that  faith, 
for  the  benefit  of  philosophers  and  men  of  culture.  The  simple 
faith  itself,  as  expressed  in  the  apostolic  Regula  Fidei  was 
enough  for  the  great  mass  of  ordinary  Christians,  and  was  all 
that  they  were  capable  of  understanding.  But  the  educated  man 
could  not  be  satisfied  until  he  understood  the  real  meaning  of  this 
faith,  which  consisted  in  the  system  of  knowledge  elaborated  by 
Origen.  In  this  perfect  gnosis  was  the  eternal  and  abiding  truth 
of  Christianity.  It  was  in  the  Logos-christological  controversies 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  37 

Lateran  council  of  1215  the  church  added  to  these 
ancient  dogmas  those  of  the  eucharist,  baptism, 
and  penance.  These  five  articles  formed  exclusive 
dogma  of  the  first  order  up  to  the  council  of  Trent. 
Around  dogma  proper  a  fine-spun  and  complex 
theology  was  built  up  during  the  Middle  Ages  that 
practically  buried  it,  while  the  energy  of  west- 
ern Christendom  was  turned  toward  the  establish- 
ment of  the  elaborate  ecclesiastical  organization 
and  cultus  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church.  From 
the  time  of  Augustine  the  period  is  notable,  theo- 

of  the  seventy-five  years  following  Origen  that  the  philosophical 
speculations  characterizing  his  theology  really  came  to  be  intro- 
duced into  the  Regula  Fidei  as  an  integral  part.  One  of  the 
first  instances  is  found  in  the  letter  of  the  eastern  bishops  to  Paul 
of  Samosata  in  opposition  to  his  Christology.  They  say  that  they 
desire  to  set  forth  "  the  faith  which  we  received  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  possess,  having  been  transmitted  and  kept  in  the 
Catholic  church,  proclaimed  up  to  our  day  by  the  successors  of 
the  blessed  apostles,  who  were  both  eyewitnesses  and  assistants 
of  the  Logos."  But  what  they  proceed  to  define  as  "  the  faith  "  is 
nothing  other  than  the  speculative  philosophy.  In  addition  to 
this,  by  the  end  of  the  third  century  even  baptismal  confessions 
containing  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos  began  to  appear  in  the 
East.  Thus  gradually  in  this  section  of  the  church,  during  the 
years  from  Origen  to  the  council  of  Nicaea,  the  philosophical  dog- 
matics of  Origen,  or  equally  philosophical  modifications  of  his 
system,  became  inextricably  fused  with  the  "  apostolic  faith,"  and 
the  triumph  of  theology  over  faith  was  complete.  Owing  to  the 
less  speculative  temper  of  the  West,  and  its  interest  in  other 
phases  of  Christianity,  this  fusion  of  dogma  and  faith  was  not 
completed  there  until  a  much  later  date,  and  then  largely  under 
the  influence  of  the  Greek  spirit,  exerted  through  the  oecumenical 
councils  and  the  controversies  growing  out  of  them. 


38          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

logically,  for  the  systems  of  a  few  great  thinkers, 
rather  than  for  general  intellectual  activity.  The 
church  at  large  lived  in  ignorance,  superstition, 
and  worldliness,  while  the  more  earnest  spirits 
sought  to  escape  from  the  world's  temptations 
by  fleeing  to  the  isolation  of  the  monasteries.  In 
the  East  theology  continued  to  be  of  vital  impor- 
tance for  a  much  longer  time  than  in  the  West; 
yet  even  here  it  was  gradually  supplanted  by  the 
cultus.  But,  while  old  doctrines  were  turned  into 
dogmas,  and  other  doctrines  came  to  the  front, 
in  neither  East  nor  West  was  there  anything 
generically  new  in  theology  during  this  entire 
period. 

In  the  theological  activity  of  this  period,  as 
well  as  in  the  ecclesiastical,  the  molding  influence 
of  the  Roman  mind  was  decisive.  Attention  has 
already  been  called  to  the  fact  that  Roman  initia- 
tive in  theology  was  confined  to  the  practical  doc- 
trines of  the  church.  It  was  during  the  period 
now  before  us  that  the  further  influence  of  Rome 
there  referred  to  appeared.  The  principle  of  ex- 
pressing the  gospel  in  a  theology  that  should 
embody  the  perfect  knowledge  was  due  to  Greek 
influence,  as  we  have  seen,  as  were  also  the  first 
essays  in  this  direction.  The  matter  was  then 
taken  up  by  the  Romans  and  worked  out  accord- 
ing to  their  legal  genius.  That  is,  orthodox 
dogmatics  is  due,  generically,  to  Greek  influence ; 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  39 

specifically,  the  dogmas  were  all  of  them  nurtured, 
and  some  of  them  born,  in  Rome.  The  theo- 
logical stream,  having  taken  its  rise  in  Greek  soil, 
flowed  now  through  Roman  territory,  and  drew 
up  into  itself  Roman  elements.  This  accounts 
for  the  fact  that  the  doctrines  which  are  cur- 
rent in  western  Christendom  are  so  universally 
colored  by  the  Roman  juridical  ideas.  It  accounts 
also  for  the  dominating  influence  of  Paul  in  the- 
ology, his  terminology  being  especially  suscep- 
tible of  legal  manipulation.  It  accounts  still 
further  for  the  unsatisfactory  form,  philosophi- 
cally considered,  of  many  doctrines  formulated 
under  Roman  influence;  for  the  Romans  had  no 
independent  speculative  genius. 

The  influence  of  the  Roman  Tertullian  in  the 
former  age  had  already  been  far-reaching.  In 
the  period  now  before  us  Augustine  is  the  great 
name — the  lineal  theological  descendant  of  Ter- 
tullian. Augustine  carried  the  development  for- 
ward, and  exerted  an  incalculable  influence  in 
forming  orthodox  theology  and  in  directing  its 
subsequent  course.  He  is  of  special  interest  for 
our  discussion,  because  in  his  system  there  comes 
to  light,  although  he  was  apparently  unconscious 
of  the  fact,  the  inherent  contradiction  into  which 
Christianity  had  run.  On  the  one  hand,  he  made 
salvation  depend  upon  membership  in  the  earthly 
church  organization,  with  participation  in  its  or- 


40          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

dinances  and  the  acceptance  of  its  creed ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  he  maintained  that  salvation 
depends  solely  upon  the  free  sovereign  grace  and 
election  of  God,  conditioned  only  by  faith  in 
Christ. 

But  while  this  period  contains  much  of  inter- 
est for  a  detailed  history  of  the  church  and  of 
doctrine,  yet  with  these  remarks  we  may  pass  it 
here ;  for  there  was  no  change  in  underlying  the- 
ological principle  from  Origen  to  Luther,  if,  in- 
deed, we  are  to  find  it  even  then. 

III.  THE  OBSCURATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL  RESULTING 
FROM  THE  EARLY  TRANSFORMATION  OF  CHRIS- 
TIANITY. 

The  discussion  hitherto  in  this  chapter  has 
been  occupied  with  the  transformation  of  Chris- 
tianity that  took  place  during  the  early  history 
of  the  church.  It  is  now  necessary  to  observe 
more  particularly  the  nature  of  this  change  and 
see  how  it  caused  an  eclipse  of  the  original  gos- 
pel of  Jesus. 

The  radical  character  of  the  change. 

The  obscuration  of  the  gospel  resulting  from 
the  success  of  the  ecclesiastical  movement  as 
distinguished  from  the  theological  is  apparent  to 
every  candid  student  of  history.  The  secret  of 
it  may  be  expressed  in  a  sentence :  The  early 
ecclesiastical  transformation  of  Christianity  in- 
volved the  substitution  of  the  church  for  the 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  41 

Christ  as  the  object  of  faith,  and  hence  as  the 
means  of  salvation ;  or,  to  say  the  least,  Christ 
could  be  found  only  through  the  church,  which 
therefore  conditioned  salvation. 

There  can  be  no  question,  as  will  be  shown  in 
chap,  iv,  that  Christ  and  the  apostles  made 
salvation  a  vital,  not  a  mechanical,  matter.  It 
did  not  depend  upon  ordinances,  however  much 
it  might  express  itself  in  them  or  encourage 
itself  by  them.  It  depended  solely  upon  a  faith 
which  brought  man  into  such  a  relation  of  con- 
fident reliance  upon  God  and  willingness  to  do 
his  will  that  God  could  teach  him  how  to  live  and 
give  him  the  power  to  realize  the  new  life  in 
actual  character  and  deeds.  The  early  transfor- 
mation of  the  church,  with  the  new  theories 
involved,  obscured  this  New  Testament  idea  of 
salvation.  The  process  of  change  may  be  traced 
more  or  less  clearly,  as  indicated  above,  and  cer- 
tainly the  resulting  condition  of  things  is  all  too 
plain.  Salvation  came  to  depend,  not  upon  union 
with  Christ,  but  upon  union  with  the  church.  Not 
figuratively,  but  actually,  were  sins  washed  away 
by  the  baptismal  waters  ;  and  the  perpetuation  of 
God's  gracious  favors  could  be  secured  only  by 
continued  participation  in  the  Lord's  Supper, 
which  now  had  become  a  sacrament.  These 
were  both  administered  by  the  church  through 
its  priests.  Hence  salvation  was  impossible  out- 


42          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

side  the  church.  Ceremonialism  replaced,  or  at 
least  conditioned,  salvation  as  a  living  process. 
Ceasing  to  be  obtained  by  a  vital  process,  salva- 
tion ceased  to  be  a  vital  matter ;  or,  at  best,  liv- 
ing was  regulated  by  what  the  church  said,  rather 
than  by  what  Christ  commanded. 

In  connection  with  this  ecclesiastical  obscura- 
tion, account  must  also  be  taken  of  the  seculari- 
zation of  the  worship  of  the  church  by  the 
introduction  of  rites  and  ceremonies  from  the 
neighboring  heathen  cults.  As  to  just  how  great 
this  influence  was  there  is  difference  of  opinion, 
but  without  doubt  it  was  considerable.  The 
form  of  administering  the  ordinances,  the  char- 
acter of  church  architecture,  the  observance 
of  days  and  seasons,  the  worship  of  saints  and 
images — these  and  many  other  things  were  in- 
fluenced by  the  heathen  environment,  which  cast 
its  ceremonial  and  superstitious  shadows  over 
the  simplicity  of  the  primitive  Christian  wor- 
ship. 

But,  while  the  eclipse  of  the  gospel  due  to 
Roman  influence  was  disastrous,  that  due  to 
the  Greek  influence  during  the  formative  period 
of  the  church  was  still  deeper  and  darker — was, 
indeed,  the  most  radical  metamorphosis  of  Chris- 
tianity that  has  ever  taken  place. 

In  the  first  place,  and  of  chief  importance, 
the  transfer  of  base  from  faith  to  knowledge 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  43 

caused  a  fundamental  obscuration  of  the  gospel 
by  radically  changing  its  nature  and  the  field  of 
its  operation.  Not  that  the  theological  expression 
of  the  gospel  in  a  philosophical  form  congenial 
with  contemporary  culture  constitutes  in  itself 
an  evil.  On  the  contrary,  this  is  necessary  to 
its  proper  comprehension  in  any  age,  and  to 
its  most  effective  influence.  Christianity  has 
intellectual  aspects  and  relations  that  need 
systematic  expression.  The  obscuration  results 
only  when  the  gospel  forgets  its  real  nature, 
and  not  only  expresses  itself  in  philosophical 
form,  but  so  identifies  itself  with  this  expression 
as  to  lose  its  original  character  as  a  religion  of 
faith.  Nor  does  this  identification  need  to  be 
absolute  in  order  to  constitute  an  eclipse.  That 
result  will  be  produced  if  the  change  from  faith 
to  knowledge  is  pronounced  enough  to  affect  per- 
manently the  distinctive  principle  of  Christianity 
and  upset  the  old  balance  of  truth  by  the  substi- 
tution of  a  new  governing  idea. 

This  is  exactly  what  was  accomplished  in  the 
early  historical  development  that  culminated  in 
the  theology  of  Origen.  Christianity  there  not 
only  produced  a  theology,  but  went  farther,  and 
became  identified  with  this  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  it  was  transferred  from  the  religious 
realm,  where  Christ  established  it,  to  the  intel- 
lectual realm  of  philosophy.  Now  philosophy 


44          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

deals  only  with  ideas,  in  their  thought-relations. 
This  is  not  its  fault,  but  its  high  calling  and  last- 
ing glory.  Its  proper  task  is  to  interpret  the 
world  to  thought,  by  means  of  ideas  and  con- 
cepts. But  for  that  very  reason  philosophy  can- 
not take  the  place  of  religion.  The  thought  is 
not  the  thing;  the  idea  of  God  is  not  God  him- 
self. Both  philosophy  and  religion  have  God  as 
their  final  goal.  But  in  philosophy  God  is  at  the 
last  still  only  an  idea ;  in  religion  he  is  the  final 
personal  reality.  In  philosophy  we  are  related 
to  him  in  thinking ;  in  religion  we  are  related  to 
him  by  the  whole  moral  and  religious  nature  as 
well.  Philosophy  is  thus  only  a  segment  of 
religion,  the  intellectual  segment.  Religion 
includes  this,  and,  in  addition,  the  great  realms 
of  moral  judgment,  feeling,  and  willing.  In- 
deed, if  Christianity  is  to  be  confined  to  any 
one  realm,  it  belongs,  in  Christ's  thought, 
far  more  truly  to  one  of  these  last  than  to 
that  of  ideas.  Therefore  to  identify  Chris- 
tianity with  philosophy,  or  even  to  turn  it  de- 
terminatively  in  that  direction,  as  was  done  in 
the  early  historical  process,  was  radically  to 
change  its  nature  and  obscure  its  characteristic 
quality  by  deflecting  it  into  the  channel  to  which 
it  least  properly  belongs.  Intellectual  assent 
to  a  body  of  philosophical  knowledge  does  not 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  45 

meet  at  all  Christ's  requirements  of  faith,  even 
though  this  philosophy  has  to  do  with  divine 
things. 

This  transformation  constitutes  the  original 
and  fundamental  Christian  heresy ;  none  the  less 
a  heresy  because  it  has  arrogated  to  itself  exclu- 
sive right  to  the  term  "orthodoxy,"  and  can  still 
maintain  that  title  for  the  reason  that  it  is  in  pos- 
session of  the  standards  by  which  it  judges 
truth,  standards  which  it  has  itself  set  up  and 
declared  to  be  authoritative.  It  is  a  heresy  that 
has  never  been  eradicated.  While  practically  it 
has  been  overridden  in  every  time  of  religious 
revival,  when  the  original  power  of  the  gospel 
has  asserted  itself  in  spite  of  obstacles,  yet  theo- 
retically it  has  remained  unchanged  from  that  day 
to  this,  and  has  dethroned  Christianity  from  its 
rightful  dominion  over  the  entire  range  of  human 
life.  The  reason  why  it  has  not  proved  even 
more  disastrous  is  the  fact  of  the  divine  persist- 
ence of  the  faith  itself.  However  it  might  be  with 
individuals,  assent  to  the  creed  was  never  com- 
pletely divorced,  in  the  church  as  a  whole,  from 
living  faith  in  Jesus.  The  gospel  survived  in 
spite  of  its  theological  obscuration ;  and  even  in 
the  darkest  ages,  when  the  teaching  that  men 
could  be  saved  only  by  entering  the  organized 
church  and  subscribing  to  its  authorized  creed 


46          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

cast  its  withering  blight  upon  religion  and  moral- 
ity, still  true  religion  was  conserved  and  society 
preserved  by  the  existence  of  sincere  and  pious 
saints  and  sages  that  had  felt  the  inspiration  of 
direct  contact  with  the  divine  Lord. 

Another  result  of  the  success  of  this  process 
leading  to  the  establishment  of  Origen's  theol- 
ogy was  not  immediately  apparent,  and  could  not 
be  until  the  thinking  of  the  world  should  change. 
This  very  success  also,  on  the  other  hand,  helped 
to  keep  thought  from  changing,  for  it  caused  the 
perpetuation  of  the  particular  philosophy  then 
dominant.  It  was  not  philosophy  in  general,  or  in 
the  abstract,  with  which  Christianity  became  iden- 
tified, but  the  specific  philosophy  that  up  to  that 
time  had  been  developed,  and  was  then  current. 
Christianity  thus  took  up  into  itself  as  a  constitu- 
ent element  the  philosophical  and  scientific  ideas 
of  the  Alexandrian  period,  colored  by  the  world- 
view  and  the  intellectual  atmosphere  of  that  age. 
Did  that  make  the  culture  of  that  age  divine, 
along  with  the  religion  which  had  appropriated  it  ? 
Or  would  the  old  world-view  pass  away,  would  the 
thinking  of  men  change,  and  would  this  culture 
some  day  become  so  obsolete  as  to  bring  the  gos- 
pel itself  into  disrepute,  and  thus  rob  men  living 
in  a  new  civilization  of  the  blessings  of  Christian- 
ity? We  shall  see. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  47 

The  eclipse  of  the  personal  element  in  the  gospel. 

Looking  at  the  early  historical  movement  as 
a  whole,  and  from  a  somewhat  different  angle 
of  vision,  its  effect  is  still  more  clearly  discern- 
ible. It  involved  the  elimination,  or  at  least  the 
radical  obscuring,  of  that  which  is  most  charac- 
teristic of  religion  in  general,  and  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  in  particular  —  namely,  the  personal 
element. 

This  is  apparent  from  what  has  already  been 
said  concerning  the  process  of  transformation, 
but  may  well  be  brought  out  definitely  here. 

I.  Salvation  was  at  first  a  new  life  of  faith 
in  Christ,  involving  a  personal  trust  which  so 
united  the  believer  with  him  that  the  Master's 
power  to  conquer  sin  became  the  disciple's  also. 
There  came  a  double  change.  On  the  one  hand, 
under  the  influence  of  the  Greek  spirit  and  phi- 
losophy, there  was  a  change  in  the  nature  of  faith, 
from  personal  trust  and  allegiance  to  intellectual 
assent ;  the  act  of  the  whole  moral  and  religious 
nature  became  an  act  of  the  intellect  alone.  On 
the  other  hand,  this  involved  a  change  in  the  ob- 
ject of  faith,  the  intellect  turning  from  Christ  to 
what  he  said,  and  to  what  others  said  that  he 
said,  and  then  to  what  ought  to  be  thought  con- 
cerning the  kind  of  person  he  was.  That  is, 
the  object  of  faith  ceased  to  be  Christ  and  became 
the  creed  —  the  body  of  knowledge  that  deals 


48          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

with  Christ  and  his  teaching.  The  object  of  faith 
was  still  further  affected  by  the  Roman  influence, 
which  made  the  thing  requiring  acceptance  not  so 
much  the  creed  as  the  church  and  its  ordinances. 
Here  the  church  was  substituted  for  Christ  as  the 
creed  had  been  by  the  Greeks.  There  was  thus  a 
double  depersonalization  of  the  religion  :  faith 
largely  ceased  to  be  personal  in  its  nature,  due  to 
its  conversion  from  a  religious  into  an  intellectual 
act ;  and  in  the  object  toward  which  it  is  directed, 
due  to  the  displacement  of  the  personal  Christ  by 
the  impersonal  creed  and  the  impersonal  church. 

This  characterization  is  not  to  be  taken  as  ab- 
solute. As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  never  was  a 
time  when  faith  in  Christ  did  not  involve  belief 
in  what  he  said,  as  well  as  trust  in  him  ;  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  time  never  came  when  the  in- 
tellectual acceptance  of  the  creed  and  the  church 
was  totally  divorced  from  all  connection  with  the 
personal  Lord,  who,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly, 
was  regarded  as  the  author  of  the  existing  dog- 
matics and  church  institution.  Yet  the  change 
was  decisive  enough  to  affect  radically  and  per- 
manently the  distinctive  character  of  Christianity, 
and  deprive  it  of  the  wealth  of  personal  relation- 
ships which  it  had  in  the  thought  and  life  of  its 
founder. 

2.  Again,  at  the  first  the  church  was  under 
the  free  leadership  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  was  a 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  49 

united  company  of  Spirit-filled  men  and  women. 
So  led,  they  elected  their  officers  and  carried  on 
their  work.  They  agreed  together  because,  and 
in  so  far  as,  they  all  possessed  the  common  spirit. 
Nothing  is  plainer  in  the  New  Testament  church 
than  this.  But  this  consciousness  of  spiritual  in- 
spiration gradually  waned  under  long-continued 
contact  with  the  world,  the  unexpected  delay  of 
the  return  of  the  Lord,  the  encroaching  preten- 
sions of  the  clergy,  and  other  influences  sur- 
rounding the  early  church.  Then  other  author- 
ity and  leadership  seemed  necessary  to  take  the 
Spirit's  place — something  tangible  and  able  to 
enforce  its  claims  with  visible  power.  Moreover, 
abuses  and  extravagances  were  common  under 
the  old  free  spiritual  regime,  and  the  leaders  of 
the  church  more  and  more  desired  to  have  things 
reduced  to  decency  and  order.  So  the  old  domi- 
nance of  the  Spirit  was  gradually  supplanted  by 
the  authority  of  tradition,  and  by  the  "  proprie- 
ties," and  later  by  the  written  word  of  the  New 
Testament — which  was  formed  into  a  canon 
partly  to  meet  this  very  need, — and  still  later  by 
the  creed  and  the  church,  all  of  these,  in  turn, 
involving  the  growing  influence  of  the  church 
leaders. 

Thus  the  Christian  communities  were  brought 
into  subjection  to  impersonal  authority,  and  the 
unity  of  the  Spirit  was  superseded  by  uniformity 


50          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

of  belief  and  of  worship.  No  one  will  question 
that  the  old  order,  even  with  all  of  its  abuses,  was 
richer  in  life  and  power.  It  was  this  very  spiritual 
exuberance  that  did  more  than  anything  else  to 
give  to  Christianity  its  triumphs  in  the  early  cen- 
turies. Impersonal  authority  was  substituted  at 
the  expense  of  vital  force.  Inspiration  died  as 
theology  and  priest  acquired  dominion. 

Perhaps  this  external  authority  was  necessary 
during  the  long  tutelage  of  the  new  races  with 
which  Christianity  came  into  contact.  Be  that 
as  it  may,  it  involved  a  decided  depersonalization 
of  the  gospel,  which,  if  it  continued  permanent 
after  its  temporary  purpose  should  have  been 
served,  would  remain  as  an  element  of  misunder- 
standing and  inefficiency.  The  time  of  tutelage 
and  bondage  to  law  must  again  pass  away  and 
let  the  original  spiritual  leadership  return  in 
fuller  and  more  intelligently  accepted  power. 

The  elimination  of  the  personal  element 
from  Christianity  may  be  further  illustrated  by 
examples  taken  from  the  growth  of  special  doc- 
trines. 

i.  The  substitution  of  a  philosophical  "God" 
for  the  personal  "  Father  "  of  Jesus.  Jesus'  habit- 
ual and  characteristic  mode  of  designating  God 
was  by  the  term  "  Father."  In  the  four  gospels, 
not  counting  duplicates  in  parallel  passages,  he  is 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  51 

reported  as  using  that  term  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
eight  times.  He  uses  it  almost  exclusively  in 
prayer  and  in  reference  to  God's  forgiveness  and 
providence.  The  term  "  God  "  he  employs  only  one 
hundred  and  thirty-three  times,  and  nearly  always 
in  formal  and  technical  ways  —  one-third  of  the 
instances  being  in  such  customary  phrases  as 
" kingdom  of  God,"  " Son  of  God,"  and  "word  of 
God."  He  never  uses  it  in  speaking  of  forgive- 
ness, nor  employs  it  in  prayer ;  unless  one  con- 
siders as  prayer  his  bitter  exclamation  on  the 
cross,  when  for  one  dark  moment  he  loses  the 
consciousness  of  his  Father's  presence.  But 
even  then  he  immediately  recovers  himself,  and 
says  :  "  Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commit  my  spirit." 
Jesus'  Father  was  his  dearest  personal  friend,  his 
constant  counselor  and  inspiration.  His  thought 
of  God  and  his  filial  relation  to  God  are  unique 
and  constituent  elements  in  his  personality  and 
in  the  religion  that  he  founded. 

But  even. within  New  Testament  times  Christ's 
thought  of  God  began  to  be  obscured.  It  was 
impossible  for  his  disciples  to  have  the  intimate 
consciousness  of  God  as  Father  that  Jesus  pos- 
sessed. So  it  need  not  surprise  us  to  mark  a 
change  in  Paul's  usage.  In  the  thirteen  epistles 
ascribed  to  him  he  employs  the  term  "  Father" 
only  forty-five  times,  and  the  term  "God"  five 
hundred  and  forty-two  times ;  while  in  his  four 


52          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

great  epistles,  which  have  so  extensively  influ- 
enced theology,  he  speaks  of  the  "  Father  "  only 
sixteen  times,  and  of  "God"  three  hundred  and 
fifty-one  times.  It  is  not  assumed  that  Paul  failed 
to  grasp  Christ's  thought  of  the  fatherhood  of 
God.  His  writings  show  clearly  that  he  did  under- 
stand that  idea,  and  experienced  great  comfort  in 
the  consciousness  that  God  is  a  tender  Father  from 
whose  love  nothing  can  separate  his  children. 
But  here  is  a  remarkable  change  in  terminology, 
to  say  the  least.  It  is  not  without  significance 
that  Paul  said,  "Nothing  can  separate  us  from  the 
love  of  God,"  instead  of,  "  from  the  love  of  our 
Father."  Terminology  and  thought  are  closely 
connected.  The  very  name  "Father"  involves 
some  of  the  closest  and  tenderest  ties  known  to 
earth;  while  the  term  "God"  is  formal,  govern- 
mental, and,  in  philosophical  usage,  often  imper- 
sonal. Paul  reverses  in  a  striking  manner  the 
emphasis  of  Christ's  terminology.  This  indi- 
cates a  change  from  the  atmosphere  of  Christ's 
habitual  thought  of  God,  even  though  Paul  shows 
that  he  understood  that  thought. 

When  once  we  get  beyond  the  New  Testament 
writings,  the  change  is  rapid  and  unmistakable. 
Greek  philosophy  knew  nothing  about  a  personal 
Father  in  Christ's  sense,  but  it  understood  some- 
thing about  a  God,  and  had  long  been  accustomed 
to  the  use  of  that  term.  Hence  that  was  the 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  53 

point  at  which  it  attached  itself  to  Christianity. 
After  three  centuries  of  philosophical  manipula- 
tion, there  emerged  a  metaphysical  tri-personal 
God  that  was  supposed  to  meet  the  requirements 
of  thought.  But  what  was  gained  for  thinking, 
if  there  was  a  gain,  was  lost  for  life.  Jesus' 
tender,  loving,  watchful,  personal  Father  had  dis- 
appeared from  theological  Christianity,  which 
had  received,  as  a  substitute,  the  attenuated  God 
of  Graeco-Christian  speculation,  cut  off  from  touch 
with  living  men.  The  philosophical  tri-personal- 
ization,  whether  true  or  false,  had  resulted  in  a 
practical  depersonalization  of  God. 

2.  The  substitution  of  a  Logos  doctrine  for 
the  historical  Jesus.  When  the  philosophical 
spirit  began  to  work  on  the  Christian  tradition, 
the  effort  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  founder 
of  the  new  religion  was  naturally  one  of  its  first 
undertakings.  The  rudiments  of  this  christologi- 
cal  speculation  are  found  within  the  New  Testa- 
ment itself,  in  the  prologue  to  John's  gospel,  if 
not  throughout  his  entire  writings,  in  Paul's 
epistles,  and  in  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  In 
the  New  Testament,  however,  true  to  the  spirit 
and  purpose  everywhere  characterizing  those 
writings,  the  matter  is  still  always  presented  in 
its  practical  religious  aspects. 

Outside  the  New  Testament  the  discussion 
soon  developed  into  a  purely  philosophical  specu- 


54          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

lation.  The  point  of  attachment  was  the  Greek 
doctrine  of  the  Logos  ;  and  the  first  step  was  the 
identification  of  the  historical  Jesus  with  the 
Logos.  The  Logos  doctrine  had  already  had  a 
history  of  five  hundred  years,  and  had  become  a 
component  part  of  Greek  philosophy.  When 
Jesus  was  identified  with  the  Logos,  therefore,  he 
at  once  became  the  subject  of  metaphysical  inves- 
tigation and  definition.  The  historical  person 
lost  his  vivid  distinctness,  and  the  philosophical 
idea  took  his  place.  Christology  displaced  Christ. 
The  second  step  was  the  inclusion  of  the  Logos 
within  the  essence  of  the  Deity.  Jesus  thus 
became  philosophically  incorporated  into  a  meta- 
physical God,  and  the  further  trinitarian  specu- 
lations became  a  necessity. 

The  point  at  issue  here  is  not  whether  the  ideas 
advanced  were  right  or  wrong,  but  the  fact  of  the 
substitution  of  ideas  for  the  personal  reality.  The 
change  removed  Christ  from  the  realm  of  his- 
torical and  practical  life  to  the  realm  ot  specula- 
tive metaphysics.  It  was  a  kind  of  christological 
pantheism,  as  if  in  our  day  a  doctrine  of  Christ 
should  be  worked  out  in  conformity  with  the  cur- 
rent ruling  philosophical  idea — that  of  evolution. 

3.  The  substitution  of  a  juridical  "justifica- 
tion" for  Christ's  personal  "forgiveness."  Jesus 
regarded  sin  as  a  personal  matter ;  it  is  not  so 
much  the  transgression  of  law  as  disloyalty  to  the 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  55 

author  of  law ;  not  so  much  the  breaking  of  God's 
law  as  the  breaking  of  God's  heart.  The  require- 
ment is  supreme  love  to  God  and  fraternal  love 
to  man.  Sin  is  failure  so  to  love.  Sin  is,  there- 
fore, essentially  personal. 

As  sin  was  personal  in  Jesus'  thought,  so  also 
was  the  forgiveness  of  sin.  He  habitually  spoke 
of  forgiveness.  It  was  the  nature  of  the  Father 
to  forgive,  and  the  desire  of  his  heart  that 
men  should  repent  in  order  that  they  might  be 
forgiven.  The  number  of  times  he  used  the 
word  cannot  adequately  represent  the  place  it 
had  in  his  mind  and  teaching;  for  the  same 
thought  is  conveyed  by  other  words  and  by  par- 
ables. He  used  the  term  "  forgive  "  or  "forgive- 
ness" twenty-six  times  in  the  gospels.  He  used 
the  word  "justify"  only  twice,  in  the  Pauline 
sense,  if  indeed  these  two  are  so  used.  In  Matt. 
12:37  he  says,  referring  to  the  final  judgment, 
"  By  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  justified,"  and  in 
Luke  18:14  he  says,  "The  publican  went  down 
to  his  house  justified  rather  than  the  Pharisee." 

Here  again  the  future  development  was  started 
within  the  New  Testament.  It  is  a  well-known 
fact  that  Paul  employed  the  term  "justification" 
to  express  the  idea  for  which  Christ  used  the 
word  "forgiveness."  Paul  speaks  of  justification 
thirty  times  in  his  extant  letters,  and  of  forgive- 
ness only  six  times.  But,  still  more  significant, 


56          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

in  his  four  great  epistles  he  uses  "justification" 
twenty-eight  times  and  "forgiveness"  only  once, 
and  then  in  a  quotation  from  the  Old  Testament. 
With  Paul  himself  it  may  be  that  here,  also,  the 
change  was  one  of  terminology  rather  than  of 
thought.  It  must  also  be  borne  in  mind  that  he 
was  combating  legalism  polemically,  and  that 
this  influenced  his  terminology.  Still  it  can 
hardly  be  questioned  that  Paul's  conception  of 
the  matter  was  more  restricted  than  Christ's, 
due  to  his  pharisaical  education  and  the  persist- 
ence of  old  habits  of  thinking. 

Outside  the  religious  atmosphere  that  pervades 
the  New  Testament,  this  legal  view  of  forgive- 
ness made  rapid  way.  The  metaphysical  dis- 
cussions concerning  God  were  foreign  to  Roman 
habits  of  thought,  and  were  left  in  the  main  to 
Greek  theologians.  The  Romans  took  up  rather 
the  questions  concerning  sin  and  salvation.  And 
when  the  Roman  theologian,  dominated  by  the 
legal  genius  of  his  nation,  read  the  New  Testa- 
ment, he  did  not  choose  Christ's  term  "  forgive- 
ness," but  Paul's  "  justification."  The  law  knows 
no  forgiveness.  And  so  Tertullian,  the  father  of 
Roman  theology,  himself  a  trained  Roman  lawyer, 
grasped  that  which  he  could  understand,  and  at 
the  very  start  turned  the  theology  of  salvation 
into  that  legal  and  governmental  channel  which 
it  has  followed  ever  since. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  57 

The  significance  of  the  change  is  evident. 
Forgiveness  is  not  merely  the  remission  of  pen- 
alty. It  is  not  the  judicial  pronouncement  that 
the  repenting  sinner  is  now  acquitted ;  much  less 
that  he  is  acquitted  because  someone  else  has 
paid  the  penalty  for  him,  as  later  theology  has  it. 
That  is  not  forgiveness,  but  something  else  and 
something  less.  Forgiveness  is  pre-eminently  a 
personal  matter :  the  Father's  pardon  of  the 
repentant  son,  the  removal  of  the  personal  bar- 
rier that  sin  has  raised  to  interrupt  the  com- 
munion between  them.  It  is  not  a  commercial 
barter  nor  a  governmental  expedient,  but  a  free 
act  of  pardoning  grace ;  and  as  such  Christ  always 
represents  it.  Justification,  on  the  contrary,  is 
formal,  legal,  forensic  :  the  acquittal  of  a  criminal 
at  the  bar  of  justice,  or  the  pardon  of  the  guilty 
subject  by  his  monarch.  It  is  entirely  inadequate 
to  do  justice  to  the  thought  of  Jesus,  and  in  its 
later  theological  form  does  decided  violence  to 
his  teaching.  Its  substitution  for  "forgiveness" 
in  the  theology  of  the  church  has  occasioned  a 
serious  depersonalization  of  Christianity. 

4.  Closely  connected  with  the  foregoing  was 
the  development  of  a  legal  and  governmental 
view  of  the  atonement,  to  the  exclusion  of  its 
personal  aspects. 

Christ  did  not  say  much  about  the  atonement, 
which  has  occupied  so  important  a  place  in  the 


58          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

theology  of  the  church  ;  and  he  never  used  the 
word  itself.  Still,  he  said  enough  about  that 
which  the  word  stands  for  to  assure  us  both  of 
its  purpose  and  of  its  spirit.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  the  historical  development  of  that  doctrine 
would  have  been  widely  different  if  his  personal 
way  of  looking  at  it  had  not  been  exchanged  for 
a  legal  view ;  for  the  elimination  of  the  personal 
element  wrought  sad  havoc  here.  Later  dog- 
matics had  much  to  say  about  the  atonement  as 
the  satisfaction  of  the  justice  of  God.  But  in 
Christ's  thought  the  atonement  was  not  the  satis- 
faction of  God's  justice  so  much  as  the  satisfaction 
of  the  Father's  love.  "  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  he  gave  his  son."  And  with  this  all  the  rest 
of  the  New  Testament  agrees.  Paul  says  :  "  God 
commendeth  his  love  toward  us,  in  that,  while  we 
were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us."  Not  once 
in  all  the  New  Testament  is  the  term  "justice  of 
God"  used  in  the  later  theological  sense,  although 
once,  in  the  classical  passage  in  Romans,  God  is 
said  to  be  just,  or  righteous,  in  connection  with 
the  atonement.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  the 
atonement  is  intimately  connected  with  God's 
justice.  But  it  is  no  less  true  that  theology  has 
emphasized  this  phase  of  the  subject  out  of  all 
proportion,  and  has  overlooked  the  fact  that, 
while  the  New  Testament  does  not  speak  of  the 
judicial  aspect  of  the  atonement  at  all,  or  at  most 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  59 

only  once,  it  does  speak  of  the  atonement  again 
and  again  as  being  the  satisfaction  of  God's  love. 
By  this  wrong  emphasis  great  injustice  has  been 
done  to  the  more  personal  aspects  of  the  mat- 
ter. Even  if  God  could  save  a  man  by  some 
legal  device,  if  he  could  reclaim  a  world  by  some 
governmental  makeshift,  it  would  not  accomplish 
his  purpose  unless  it  reached  the  hearts  of  men 
and  bound  them  to  his  own  in  truest  love.  God 
wants  loving  sons,  not  merely  loyal  subjects ; 
and  love  is  personal.  The  cross  of  Christ  is  the 
supreme  manifestation  of  personal  vicarious  divine 
love. 

Thus  in  these  various  ways — and  the  special 
instances  might  be  multiplied — was  the  personal 
element  crowded  out  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus,  as 
the  result  of  tendencies  set  on  foot  in  the  early 
transformation  of  Christianity.  The  time  came 
when  theological  and  institutional  Christianity 
almost  ceased  to  be  a  personal  matter  between 
man  and  God  and  man  and  his  fellow-men,  and 
resolved  itself  into  the  observance  of  churchly 
ceremonies  and  adherence  to  a  set  of  scholastic 
ideas.  The  personal  power  of  God  had  departed, 
and  there  remained  an  arid  wilderness  of  imper- 
sonal substitutes. 

The  moral  eclipse  of  the  gospel. 

The  theological  eclipse  of  the  gospel  had  sub- 
stituted acceptance  of  the  orthodox  creed  for 


60          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

loyal  trust  in  Christ ;  and  had  thereby  made  sal- 
vation a  matter  of  intellectual  conviction  rather 
than  of  moral  and  religious  regeneration. 

The  ecclesiastical  eclipse  had  substituted  faith 
in  the  church  for  faith  in  Christ,  and  had  made 
salvation  a  matter  of  ordinances  and  observances, 
instead  of  a  vital  renewal  by  the  power  of  God, 
conditioned  upon  a  new  attitude  toward  him. 

These  two  changes  led  naturally  to  a  great 
moral  eclipse  of  the  gospel.  The  theological 
development,  by  identifying  Christianity  with 
philosophy,  had  removed  it  from  the  realm  of 
motive  and  action,  and  so  had  divorced  it  from 
the  practical  life  of  the  world.  The  domain  of 
ethics  was  left  to  take  care  of  itself.  A  man  was 
all  right  if  his  thinking  was  orthodox ;  he  might 
do  what  he  pleased.  Above  all  things  he  must 
not  be  a  heretic ;  and  heresy  was  a  matter  of 
right  thinking,  not  of  right  doing.  That,  in  a 
nutshell,  is  the  theoretical  justification  of  the 
morality  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  theory  was 
not  lived  out  in  uniform  consistency,  fortunately 
for  the  world  ;  but  that  was  the  logic  of  the  situa- 
tion which  made  possible  the  immorality  of  the 
so-called  Christian  church.1 

*  A  full  discussion  of  this  subject  belongs  to  the  history  of 
ethics,  and  would  here  lead  us  too  far  afield.  As  early  as  the 
Montanist  struggle  a  party  had  begun  to  protest  against  the 
continuous  secularizing  of  the  church  and  its  lax  morality. 
But  the  great  opportunist  party  contended  that  too  strict  a  mo- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  61 

The  ecclesiastical  evolution,  on  the  other  hand, 
kept  in  touch  with  practical  life,  but  changed 
the  standard  of  living.  The  bishop  took  the 
place  of  Christ  as  lawgiver.  It  may  be  claimed, 
and  is  claimed,  that  this  was  no  change ;  that 
Christ  continued  to  legislate  through  the  bishop. 

rality  would  interfere  with  the  dominion  of  the  church  over  the 
world,  and  began  to  distinguish  between  the  morality  required  of 
the  clergy  and  that  necessary  among  the  laity.  Hence  it  soon 
came  to  pass  that  "  in  order  to  be  a  Christian  a  man  no  longer 
required  in  any  sense  to  be  a  saint."  There  was  legitimized  an 
average  morality,  in  accordance  with  which  the  whole  world 
could  live.  Those  who  were  not  satisfied  with  this  loose  morality 
could  console  themselves  with  the  meritorious  practice  of  asceti- 
cism. As  Harnack  says:  "Alongside  of  a  code  of  morals  to 
which  anyone  in  case  of  need  could  adapt  himself,  the  church 
began  to  legitimize  a  morality  of  self-chosen,  refined  sanctity 
which  really  required  no  Redeemer."  This  asceticism,  culminat- 
ing in  monachism,  exercised,  from  the  end  of  the  third  century, 
an  ever-increasing  power  in  the  Catholic  church,  with  its  alluring 
invitation  to  earnest  spirits  to  escape  the  growing  corruption  by 
flight  from  the  world.  Thus  the  church,  in  its  threefold  order  of 
priests,  monks,  and  laity,  offered  also  a  threefold  piety,  some  ele- 
ment of  which  was  suited  to  every  man.  The  theoretical  founda- 
tion for  these  distinctions  was  found  in  the  famous  twofold  mo- 
rality :  natural  morality,  based  upon  the  via  media  of  Aristotle  and 
the  four  cardinal  virtues ;  and  supernatural  morality,  based  upon 
I  Cor.  13  : 13  and  the  Beatitudes,  this  preconditioned  by  celibacy, 
poverty,  and  obedience,  and  possible  only  through  the  church  and 
for  the  clergy.  Here  should  also  be  mentioned  the  Jesuitical  doc- 
trine of  "  probabilism  "  :  "  if  an  opinion  is  probable,  it  is  lawful 
to  follow  it,  though  the  contrary  opinion  is  more  probable."  For, 
although  this  doctrine  was  not  "scientifically"  formulated  until 
1577,  still  the  principle  then  enunciated  had  been  operative  in  the 
church  throughout  the  Middle  Ages. 


6z          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

But  the  impartial  student  of  history  must  de- 
mur. As  the  church  moved  down  the  historical 
stream  and  came  into  contact  with  unfriendly 
influences,  it  was  corrupted  by  them.  Noth- 
ing is  more  certain.  The  bishops  who  were 
made  the  guardians  and  interpreters  of  the  truth 
were  fallible  men,  and  were  themselves  involved 
in  the  hostile  and  corrupting  environment.  Thus 
the  moral  standard  of  the  church  was  ever 
changing,  and  apparently  ever  falling  lower. 
Moreover,  the  probability  of  ethical  reform  was 
lost  from  the  fact  that  the  standard  was  now 
within  the  church  itself,  and  firmly  fixed  there  by 
the  very  theory  of  development  that  had  led  to 
this  condition  of  things.  The  church  did  not 
need  to  go  back  to  Christ,  for  itself  was  Christ 
perpetuated.  It  did  not  need  to  return  to  the 
New  Testament,  for  it  continued  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Thus  ever  sufficient  unto  itself,  and  re- 
volving upon  itself,  supposing  that  it  could  not 
get  away  from  its  Lord,  it  moved  forward  oblivi- 
ous to  the  fact  that  it  was  plunging  into  moral 
degradation,  and  that  its  path  was  strewn  with 
deeds  of  moral  monstrosity.  Both  the  blind  and 
the  blind  leaders  of  the  blind  fell  together  into 
the  ditch. 

Fortunately  here,  also,  the  result  was  not  wholly 
a  logical  conclusion  from  the  premises.  In  spite 
of  the  church  theory,  both  bishops  and  people 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  63 

caught  glimpses  of  Christ's  divine  moral  require- 
ments. Indeed,  the  gospel  of  Jesus  somehow 
succeeded  in  perpetuating  itself  in  the  church. 
We  must  never  forget  that  the  reason  for  the 
being  of  both  church  and  creed  was  Jesus  Christ. 
His  glory  might  be  dimmed ;  it  was  never  wholly 
darkened  nor  extinguished.  However  far  the 
church  might  get  away  from  its  divine  Master's 
leadership,  it  could  never  break  entirely  with 
him.  We  may  adapt  to  the  church  the  words  of 
the  poet,  and  say  truly: 

But  yet  I  know,  where'er  I  go, 
That  there  hath  passed  away  a  glory  from  the  earth ; 

but  still  also  we  must  add : 

Not  in  entire  forgetfulness, 
And  not  in  utter  nakedness, 
But  trailing  clouds  of  glory  does  it  come, 
From  God  who  is  its  home. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  result  of  this 
long  process  of  historical  development  was  the 
eclipse  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus,  an  eclipse  so  dark 
and  dense  that  it  might  be  called  total  were  it  not 
for  the  dim  radiance  which  still  penetrated  the 
obscuring  dogmatic  and  ecclesiastical  formations 
— a  radiance  that  has  deceived  men  into  think- 
ing that  the  clouds  thus  illumined  were  them- 
selves divine.  In  the  night  that  came  before  the 
dawn  of  the  Reformation  even  the  light  of  the 


64          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

gospel  had  become  darkness,  and  how  great  was 
that  darkness  ! 

In  concluding  this  chapter  it  is  worth  while  to 
pass  in  review  the  results  reached.  The  funda- 
mental thing  in  the  obscuration  of  the  gospel  was 
the  dethronement  of  Jesus  Christ  from  his  govern- 
ing position  in  Christianity  as  Savior  from  sin  and 
Lord  of  living.  This  displacement  took  a  double 
form.  Ecclesiastically,  due  chiefly  to  Roman  in- 
fluence, it  involved  a  practical  change  in  the  object 
of  faith — faith  in  Christ  being  transformed  into 
faith  in  the  church,  which  now  came  to  be  regarded 
as  the  mediator  of  salvation,  being  the  depository 
and  interpreter  of  the  saving  truth,  and  the  admin- 
istrator of  the  saving  ordinances.  Theologically, 
due  chiefly  to  Greek  influence,  it  involved  a  still 
more  fundamental  doctrinal  change,  which  af- 
fected both  the  object  of  faith  and  its  nature- 
faith  as  religious  confidence  and  trust  in  Christ 
being  superseded  by  intellectual  assent  to  a  body 
of  knowledge  authoritatively  formulated  into  a 
creed.  This  transformed  the  pistis  into  zgnosis, 
and  identified  Christianity  with  speculative  the- 
ology, thereby  divorcing  it  from  the  realm  of 
the  conscience  and  the  will,  and  virtually  shut- 
ting it  up  within  the  domain  of  the  intellect. 

This  primary  transformation  of  the  gospel, 
involving  the  double  displacement  of  Christ,  con- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  65 

tained  in  principle  the  whole  matter,  and  deter- 
mined the  historical  development  of  Christianity 
for  twelve  centuries.  During  this  period  the 
germ  so  introduced  expanded,  and  firmly  in- 
trenched itself  in  an  elaborate  system  of  dog- 
matics and  a  firmly  articulated  ecclesiastical 
organization,  which  removed  Christianity  still 
farther  from  the  purity,  simplicity,  and  power  of 
the  original  gospel. 

The  eclipse  thus  accomplished  was  accom- 
panied by  the  depersonalization  of  Christianity. 
Personal  loyalty  to  Christ  gave  way  to  alle- 
giance to  the  impersonal  church  and  creed. 
The  personal  leadership  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
was  superseded  by  the  authority  of  the  imper- 
sonal tradition  and  the  written  word  of  the 
Scriptures,  mediated  in  turn  by  the  impersonal 
church.  Jesus'  personal  Father,  the  true  God 
of  Christianity,  was  transformed  into  a  meta- 
physical idea.  Jesus  himself  became  identified 
with  the  ruling  conception  of  contemporary  Greek 
philosophy,  that  of  the  Logos.  Jesus'  idea  of 
the  personal  nature  of  sin  and  forgiveness  was 
changed  into  the  legal  view  of  sin  and  the  juridi- 
cal idea  of  justification  ;  while  his  thought  of  the 
atonement  as  the  saving  expression  of  God's  love 
was  converted  into  the  propitiation  of  God's 
wrath  and  the  satisfaction  of  his  justice. 

These  fundamental  changes  helped  on,  if  they 


66          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

did  not  directly  cause,  the  dark  moral  eclipse 
which  the  gospel  suffered  during  the  Middle 
Ages.  Christianity  being  theoretically  removed 
from  the  realm  of  the  conscience  and  the  will,  its 
great  moral  requirements  became  practically 
nullified  in  the  world  of  affairs.  Men  attached 
themselves  to  Christianity  by  swearing  allegiance 
to  the  church  and  its  creed,  while  they  kept  on 
living  according  to  the  old  laws  of  the  selfish  and 
sinful  world,  even  turning  the  church  itself  into 
an  engine  of  worldly  ambition.  Thus  it  came  to 
pass  that  Christianity,  so  radically  had  it  changed 
its  character  and  lost  its  light,  became  itself  a 
part  of  the  dark  night  which  settled  over  the 
life  of  the  Middle  Ages,  broken  only  here  and 
there  by  the  narrow  circle  of  light  cast  by  some 
lone  saint  who  had  felt  the  inspiration  of  the  still 
imperishable  faith,  and  had  come  face  to  face 
with  his  undying  personal  Lord. 


CHAPTER   III. 
THE  HISTORICAL  RECOVERY  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

THE  movement  for  the  recovery  of  the  gospel 
is  due,  as  has  already  been  shown,  to  the  modern 
spirit  and  its  insatiable  desire  to  get  at  the 
reality  of  things.  It  was  the  awakening  of  this 
spirit  during  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  its  investigation  of  the  world  at  first 
hand  along  the  various  avenues  of  knowledge, 
that  gave  birth  to  our  modern  civilization.  The 
domain  of  religious  life  and  thought  did  not 
escape,  but  to  this  also  the  new  spirit  finally 
turned  in  its  quest  for  ultimate  truth. 

Just  as  the  obscuration  of  the  gospel  was  not 
a  simple  and  momentary  thing,  but  the  result  of 
a  long  and  intricate  process  of  development,  so 
has  it  been  also  with  the  recovery  of  the  gospel. 
It  is  being  accomplished  through  a  complex  his- 
torical process,  which  has  already  been  going 
on  for  four  centuries,  and  in  which  we  are  still 
engaged.  Yet  the  end  is  so  nearly  reached  that 
the  significance  of  the  movement  is  discernible, 
some  of  its  results  are  reasonably  well  established, 
and  its  final  valuation  is  approximately  possible. 

There  are  three  clearly  marked  periods  in  the 
67 


68          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

progress  of  events.  The  first  is  that  of  the 
great  Reformation,  when  the  modern  spirit  broke 
forth  in  a  vigorous  and  stormy  demand  for  prac- 
tical religious  satisfaction.  The  second  is  the 
post-Reformation  relapse,  in  which  Protestantism 
turned  its  attention  to  doctrinal  controversy  arid 
the  formation  of  systems  of  theology  that  gave  the 
old  Catholic  heresy  a  Protestant  sanction  and  an 
enlarged  influence.  The  third  is  the  period  of  the 
nineteenth  century  Reformation,  characterized  as 
truly  as  the  first  by  the  demand  for  reality ; 
while,  with  greater  patience  and  a  clearer  under- 
standing of  the  situation,  it  has  been  working  its 
way  to  the  desired  end  by  the  scientific  method 
and  a  return  to  the  historical  sources  of  Chris- 
tianity. A  section  may  well  be  devoted  to  each 
of  these  phases  of  the  historical  movement  for 
the  recovery  of  the  gospel. 

I.     THE   LUTHERAN    REFORMATION. 

Properly  speaking,  the  sixteenth  century 
Reformation  was  not  a  theological  reformation  ; 
or,  at  most,  it  was  such  only  incidentally.  Pri- 
marily it  was  a  practical  reform  of  ecclesiastical 
and  religious  abuses.  In  other  words,  it  was  the 
reformation  of  the  Roman  element  in  contempo- 
rary Christianity. 

Let  it  be  recalled  that  in  the  early  obscuration 
of  the  gospel  the  primitive  trust  in  Christ  and 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  69 

loving  loyalty  to  him  had  suffered  a  double  dis- 
placement— in  the  nature  of  faith  and  in  the  ob- 
ject of  faith.  Passing  for  the  present  the  first  of 
these,  the  change  in  the  object  of  faith  was  in 
turn  of  a  twofold  character,  Christ  being  dis- 
placed by  the  church  and  the  creed.  Or,  as 
theology  was  of  only  secondary  importance  to 
the  Roman  mind,  it  is  perhaps  more  accurate 
to  say  that  in  the  West  salvation  came  to  be 
regarded  as  mediated  by  the  church  through  the 
ordinances  and  the  creed.  This  substitution 
of  an  ecclesiastical  organization  for  Christ  was 
the  distinctive  Roman  contribution  to  the  devel- 
opment of  Christianity. 

Now,  the  Lutheran  Reformation  was  at  first 
and  in  its  real  genius  a  revolt  against  this  Roman 
perversion  of  Christianity.  It  was,  therefore,  of 
a  practical  rather  than  of  a  theological  nature. 
It  was  an  attempt  to  reform  the  glaring  evils  in 
the  existing  church,  and  to  make  salvation  a  real 
and  living  matter,  depending  on  right  relations  to 
God  through  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  an  attempt  of 
the  new  religious  spirit  to  restore  Christ  to  the 
position  that  had  been  usurped  by  the  church. 
This  gave  it  its  character  and  determined  its 
scope. 

The  story  of  the  Reformation  is  too  familiar  to 
be  retold  here.  The  corruption  of  the  church  had 
become  so  scandalous  that  it  could  no  longer  be 


7o          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

tolerated  by  the  independent  spirit  of  the  awaken- 
ing world.  At  the  same  time  the  new  temper 
could  not  be  satisfied  with  a  mechanical  salvation 
that  came  through  the  mediation  of  priests  and 
the  sale  of  indulgences.  The  religious  demands 
of  the  new  age  became  incarnate  in  Martin  Luther. 
There  was  the  hopeless  struggle  for  a  real  salva- 
tion, which  could  not  be  found  in  the  endless 
round  of  penances  and  churchly  works.  There 
was  the  dawning  light,  followed  by  the  glorious 
day,  as  the  New  Testament  at  last  lay  before  him, 
and  he  came  into  touch  with  the  living  God  by 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  light  of  the  world. 
And  then,  as  he  began  to  realize  how  radically 
contemporary  Christianity  had  departed  from  the 
New  Testament  way  of  salvation,  so  joyously 
verified  in  his  own  experience,  there  was  a  deter- 
mined outcry  against  the  corrupt  institutional 
mediator  of  an  artificial  salvation — an  outcry 
in  which  all  the  pent-up  struggling  spirit  within 
him  burst  forth  in  an  indignant  and  vigorous 
opposition  so  deep  and  strong  that  the  old  order 
had  to  give  way  before  it.  It  was  the  protest  of 
the  aroused  spirit  against  the  church  instead  of  the 
Christ ;  it  was  the  indignation  of  the  hungry  soul 
at  a  stone  in  place  of  bread;  it  was  an  irresistible 
outburst  of  the  religious  nature  demanding  living 
satisfaction.  The  watchword  of  Paul,  after  his 
bitter  struggle  for  righteousness  by  the  deeds  of 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  71 

the  law,  was  caught  up  by  humanity  after  its  long 
contest  with  the  new  legalism  of  ecclesiastical 
prescriptions,  and  "  justification  by  faith  in  Christ" 
again  offered  a  way  of  escape  for  the  weary  and 
despairing  soul.  It  was  a  revival  of  the  very  es- 
sence of  Christianity  —  a  real  and  remarkable 
recovery  of  the  gospel. 

The  religious  and  practical  character  of  the 
Reformation  is  evident.  In  this,  also,  it  was  a 
return  to  the  true  spirit  of  the  gospel.  One  is 
profoundly  impressed  with  this  fact.  Coming 
into  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation  is  like  step- 
ping back  into  the  apostolic  age.  We  emerge 
from  the  atmosphere  of  hopeless  striving  for 
a  salvation  that  may  be  bought  by  human  ef- 
forts and  worldly  gold  into  the  free  air  of  the 
old  glorious  gospel  of  the  New  Testament,  with 
its  gracious  gift  of  reconciliation  and  living  com- 
munion with  God  through  Jesus  Christ,  of  peace 
for  the  conscience  through  justification  by  faith, 
and  of  divine  power  for  help  in  every  time  of 
need.  It  was  this  that  made  the  Reformation  so 
welcome,  and  that  gave  it  its  power.  When  such 
a  salvation  was  offered  to  a  world  longing  for 
religious  reality  it  was  everywhere  hailed  with 
joyous  acceptance. 

The  Lutheran  Reformation  did  not  get  beyond 
this  practical  religious  stage.  Or,  if  it  did,  it  got 
beyond  its  proper  range,  and  lost  itself  among  the 


72          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

theological  rocks  and  shoals  where  its  peculiar 
genius  could  not  serve  as  pilot.  The  doctrines 
changed  by  the  Reformation  were  only  those  that 
had  an  immediate  bearing  upon  the  practical 
issues  involved.  The  doctrine  of  salvation  by 
trusting  the  church,  receiving  its  ordinances,  and 
obeying  its  injunctions  was  changed  back  into  the 
New  Testament  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ.  That  was  the  fundamental  thing.and 
furnished  the  material  principle  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. It  involved  the  repudiation  of  the  authority 
of  the  church  as  co-ordinate  with  the  Bible,  and 
substituted  the  new  doctrine  of  the  all-sufficiency 
of  the  New  Testament  as  the  Christian's  guide  in 
matters  of  faith  and  practice.  This  was  the 
formal  principle  of  the  Reformation.  It  involved, 
again,  the  denial  of  the  church's  official  author- 
ity to  interpret  Scripture,  and  substituted  the 
idea  of  individual  right  and  responsibility  in 
interpretation.  This  constituted  the  individual- 
istic element  characteristic  of  Protestantism. 
These  three  doctrines,  salvation  by  faith,  the  sole 
authority  of  Scripture,  individual  right  and  re- 
sponsibility in  interpretingScripture — all  of  them 
relating  to  the  practical  issues  of  a  great  religious 
reformation — are  pretty  much  the  extent  of  the 
doctrinal  reform  of  the  sixteenth  century  move- 
ment. No  one  questions  their  great  importance  ; 
few  will  question  their  harmony  with  the  spirit  of 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  73 

the  New  Testament  gospel.  They  still  remain 
the  three  fundamental  and  distinctive  principles 
of  Protestantism. 

During  the  centuries  of  churchly  life  under  the 
influence  of  Rome,  the  dust  of  superstition  and 
the  cobwebs  of  human  fantasy  had  gathered  over 
the  face  of  God's  religious  masterpiece  and  ob- 
scured its  true  character.  The  Reformation 
cleared  away  the  accumulations  of  the  passing 
years,  and  revealed  again  to  the  world  the  match- 
less power  and  beauty  of  the  Master's  thought. 

II.      THE    POST-REFORMATION    RE-ECLIPSE    OF    THE 
GOSPEL. 

If  the  sixteenth  century  Reformation  had  fully 
succeeded,  we  should  not  need  to  discuss  further 
the  recovery  of  the  gospel.  But  unfortunately  it 
was  only  a  partial  success  ;  and  that  for  two 
reasons.  In  the  first  place,  it  emancipated  only 
a  portion  of  the  Christian  world.  The  other  part 
remained,  and  still  remains,  under  the  old  erro- 
neous ecclesiastical  system.  Indeed,  that  system 
strengthened  its  hold  and  increased  its  claims 
during  the  struggle. 

The  second  cause  of  partial  failure  lay  within 
the  camp  of  the  Reformers  themselves.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  they  also  had  been  educated  in 
the  intellectual  environment  of  the  old  system. 
Their  mental  tendencies  were  established  in  the 


74          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

groove  which  the  church  had  followed  for  centu- 
ries. The  old  angle  of  vision  had  not  been 
wholly  altered.  They  were  feeling  their  way  in 
the  midst  of  the  semi-darkness  of  the  new  dawn. 
They  still  saw  through  a  glass  darkly.  The 
smoke  of  the  battle  yet  hung  over  the  field  and 
obscured  the  clearness  of  their  sight.  And  so  it 
happened  that,  while  two  or  three  fundamental 
principles  were  clearly  discerned  and  became 
the  governing  ideas  of  the  reform  movement, 
these  purely  religious  and  ethical  convictions 
were  held  by  men  of  the  old  scholastic  temper, 
and  remained  entangled  in  the  traditional 
metaphysical  conceptions.  Thus  the  changes  in 
dogmatics  did  not  affect  the  underlying  theologi- 
cal presuppositions,  but  only  certain  individual 
doctrines;  and  Protestant  theology  became  the 
continuation  of  Catholic  theology,  as  this  in  turn 
had  perpetuated  Greek  philosophy. 

Not  that  this  was  done  consciously  and  by 
intention.  It  is  simply  an  illustration  of  the 
persistency  of  ideas,  and  of  the  fact  that  a  man 
cannot  wholly  escape  the  influence  of  his  educa- 
tional environment.  Under  the  power  of  the 
awakened  religious  impulse,  the  Reformers  broke 
away  from  the  old  order  of  things  in  a  few  vital 
points,  and  thought  that  thereby  they  had  broken 
with  it  everywhere.  This  mistake  was  the  easier 
because  that  with  which  they  did  not  break  was 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  75 

of  a  different  character  from  the  other,  had  come 
into  the  church  at  a  different  time  and  from  a 
different  source,  and  was  beyond  their  immediate 
purpose.  They  gave  their  attention  to  the  Roman 
addition  to  the  gospel;  that  which  escaped  them 
was  the  older  metaphysical  Greek  obscuration.  A 
brief  review  of  the  historical  situation  will  make 
this  evident. 

The  distinctively  theological  interest  which 
first  began  to  make  itself  strongly  felt  in  the 
church  during  the  second  century  centered  im- 
mediately in  Christology  and  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity.  These  doctrines  were  converted  into 
dogmas  by  the  first  six  general  councils,  and 
have  always  continued  to  be  regarded  in  a  pecul- 
iar sense  as  the  fundamental  dogmatic  heritage 
of  the  church.  They  are  justly  called  the  Greek 
contribution  to  Christianity,  for,  however  they 
may  have  been  influenced  by  the  Roman  mind, 
they  were  born  of  the  Greek  spirit,  and  their 
form  and  development  were  decisively  deter- 
mined by  Greek  philosophy.  That  these  dog- 
mas soon  ceased  to  be  living  issues  and  to  find  a 
place  in  the  interests  of  men  did  not  disturb 
their  theological  authority,  but  rather  strength- 
ened it.  The  fact  that  they  became  petrified 
made  them  an  all  the  more  satisfactory,  because 
more  unshakable,  foundation  for  a  church  which 
was  built  upon  the  traditions  of  the  past.  It  was 


76          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

upon  this  foundation  of  fixed  dogma  that  Augus- 
tine set  up  his  theological  structure  of  sin,  grace, 
and  means  of  grace,  and  the  whole  Middle  Ages 
occupied  itself  with  tearing  down  and  rebuilding 
in  varying  forms  this  superstructure.  It  never 
thought  of  interfering  with  the  foundation.  The 
only  part  of  the  work  of  the  Middle  Ages  that 
could  claim  at  all  the  same  character  as  that  of 
the  old  dogmatic  symbols  was  that  of  the  fourth 
Lateran  council  (1215)  which  established  as 
dogma  the  doctrines  of  the  eucharist,  baptism, 
and  penance,  and  attached  these  directly  to  the 
old  dogmas  of  Christology  and  the  Trinity. 
These  new  dogmas,  however,  clearly  in  no  way 
weakened  the  authority  of  those  formulated  over 
five  hundred  years  before,  but  rather  increased 
this  authority  by  adding  another  layer  to  the 
foundation.  Still  this  later  addition,  even  though 
regarded  as  dogma,  and  therefore  more  sacred 
than  the  changeable  theology,  was  never  ac- 
corded quite  the  same  reverence  given  to  the 
more  ancient  stratum  of  dogma,  as  the  following 
period  demonstrates. 

Nothing  more  clearly  manifests  the  untheo- 
logical  temper  of  the  Reformation  than  its  treat- 
ment of  this  Catholic  dogma.  The  ancient 
layer,  which  had  remained  crystallized  for  a 
thousand  years,  the  Reformation  never  even  seri- 
ously thought  of  calling  in  question.  As  much  for 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  77 

the  Augsburg  Confession  as  for  the  council  of 
Trent  the  church  dogmas  of  Christology  and  the 
Trinity  remained  the  unshaken  foundation.  With 
reference  to  the  newer  dogmatic  formation  of 
1215  (the  eucharist,  baptism,  and  penance)  the 
Reformation  assumed  a  vacillating  attitude ;  while 
the  real  reforms  were  wrought  out  in  the  change- 
able superstructure  of  theological,  but  not  dog- 
matically fixed,  doctrines  of  sin,  grace,  and  means 
of  grace,  built  up  by  Augustine  and  the  Middle 
Ages.  In  this  last  department  the  Reformation 
succeeded  fairly  well  in  returning  to  the  New 
Testament  teaching  ;  in  the  second  it  tried  and 
failed ;  while  in  the  first  it  did  not  even  make  the 
attempt.  This  meant  that  the  Greek  element 
which  had  been  incorporated  into  Christianity  in 
the  ancient  dogmatic  formation  was  not  discovered 
or  removed,  and  that  the  first  and  greatest  heresy — 
that  Christianity  is  a  body  of  knowledge  upon  the 
acceptance  of  which  salvation  depends  —  passed 
over  into  Protestantism  unchallenged  and  un- 
changed. This  was  the  rock  that  wrecked  the 
Reformation,  checked  it  midway  in  its  successful 
course,  and  broke  Protestantism  into  fragments. 
A  change  of  view  concerning  the  ancient 
dogma  is,  however,  to  be  noted  in  the  Reform- 
ers. They  did  not  retain  the  dogmas  of  Chris- 
tology and  the  Trinity  on  the  ground  that  they 
were  the  authoritative  dogmas  of  the  church — 


78          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

by  no  means ;  but  because  it  was  not  perceived 
that  they  were  not  contained  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. They  were  supposed  to  be  the  true 
evangelical  expression  of  the  New  Testament 
teaching,  indeed  to  be  nothing  other  than  the 
gospel  itself — an  assumption  that  still  remains 
so  firmly  fixed  in  Protestantism  that  a  man  who 
calls  them  in  question  is  immediately  regarded 
as  a  heretic,  in  wide  circles,  on  the  ground 
that  he  rejects  the  New  Testament  teaching  con- 
cerning God  and  the  divinity  of  Christ ;  it 
not  being  perceived  that  this  judgment  is  pro- 
nounced on  the  basis  of  the  Catholic  councils 
instead  of  the  Protestant  New  Testament.  At 
the  Reformation,  therefore,  the  Greek  dogmas 
became  fused  with  the  gospel  itself  even  more 
intimately  than  before,  for  now  they  had  been 
projected  back  into  the  Bible. 

Before  the  sixteenth  century  three  ideas  with 
respect  to  the  attainment  of  salvation  were  more 
or  less  influential  :  that  of  trust  in  the  church  and 
its  ordinances, that  of  acceptance  of  the  creed,  and 
the  dimmed  but  divinely  persistent  idea  of  faith 
in  Christ.  The  question  of  salvation  through  the 
church  was  disposed  of  by  the  Reformation, 
while  the  idea  of  salvation  by  faith  in  Christ 
experienced  a  vigorous  revival.  The  contest 
now  remained,  a  contest  subtle  and  unsuspected, 
between  the  two  surviving  principles — the  newly 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  79 

revived  idea  of  salvation  by  faith  in  Christ,  and 
the  old  idea  of  salvation  through  faith  in  the  creed. 

Here,  then,  was  the  insoluble  antinomy  of 
Protestantism  :  on  the  one  hand  the  fundamental 
principle  that  salvation  is  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ 
and  by  that  alone ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  per- 
sistent idea,  adopted  from  Catholicism,  that  there 
is  saving  efficacy  in  a  body  of  knowledge ;  or,  at 
least,  that  a  certain  system  of  dogmas,  regarded 
as  true  doctrine,  must  be  accepted  if  a  man  is  to 
be  an  orthodox  Christian.  And  another  anti- 
nomy growing  out  of  or  closely  associated  with 
it ;  perhaps,  indeed,  the  same  thing  under  a  dif- 
ferent aspect :  on  the  one  hand,  the  dominion 
and  free  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  written  law  of  the  Scriptures 
regarded  as  an  infallibly  inspired  theological 
statute  book.  The  history  of  Protestantism  from 
that  day  to  this  is  the  story  of  the  attempted 
solution  of  these  antinomies. 

As  long  as  the  first  religious  fervor  and  enthu- 
siasm was  in  the  ascendant,  the  principle  of  justi- 
fication by  faith  naturally  remained  the  dominant 
one.  But  in  process  of  time  important  changes 
took  place,  three  of  which  are  especially  worthy 
of  notice. 

I.  Due  partly  to  the  need  of  authoritative 
teaching,  felt  by  Protestants  themselves,  partly  to 
the  struggle  with  Catholicism,  and  partly  to  the 


8o          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

survival  of  the  old  idea  of  the  efficacy  of  true 
knowledge,  together  with  the  theological  tenden- 
cies brought  over  from  Catholicism,  the  Reform- 
ers early  turned  their  attention  toward  questions 
of  dogmatic  theology.  There  resulted  the  elabo- 
rate doctrinal  systems  of  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries.  As  has  already  been 
observed,  these  did  not  differ  in  principle,  nor, 
indeed,  in  many  of  their  conclusions,  from  Catho- 
lic theology.  It  is  a  generally  acknowledged 
fact  that  Calvin  is  in  the  direct  line  of  theologi- 
cal succession :  Tertullian,  Augustine,  Calvin. 
The  same  thing  is  true  to  a  less  extent  of 
the  other  Reformation  theologians.  These  sys- 
tems perpetuated  the  old  underlying  idea  of 
Christianity  as  the  true  system  of  knowledge,  the 
old  scholastic  subtleties,  and  the  old  unreality 
and  separation  from  living  issues. 

Moreover,  dogmatic  theology  acquired  even 
increased  influence  in  Protestantism.  In  Roman 
Catholicism,  the  church  with  its  sacerdotal  ordi- 
nances and  spectacular  worship  shared  the  field 
of  interest  with  dogmatics.  Indeed,  it  was  the 
church  that  occupied  by  far  the  most  important 
place  in  the  religious  life  of  the  masses,  while 
theology  was  relegated  to  the  scholars  and 
teachers.  In  Protestantism  this  was  reversed. 
When  the  church  ceased  to  hold  the  power  of 
dispensing  salvation,  it  fell  from  its  high  place 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  81 

in  the  minds  of  men;  and  Protestantism  has 
often  had  a  struggle  to  maintain  it  with  a 
decent  support.  On  the  other  hand,  theology 
has  received  all  of  the  attention  which  it  for- 
merly shared  with  the  church,  and  every  Prot- 
estant, be  he  educated  or  uneducated,  competent 
or  incompetent,  has  his  own  doctrinal  system 
which  he  wants  every  other  man  to  adopt. 
Theology  received  a  false  importance  in  the 
days  following  the  struggle  with  Gnosticism.  It 
retained  that  false  position  through  the  Middle 
Ages,  when  men  were  subjected  to  torture  that 
their  souls  might  be  saved  by  the  compulsory 
acceptance  of  the  right  doctrine.  But  in  Prot- 
estantism it  exalted  itself  still  higher,  and 
increased  its  pretensions,  so  that  its  reign  would 
have  become  intolerable  but  for  the  growing 
idea  of  individual  liberty  and  the  revival  of  the 
principle  of  salvation  by  faith,  which  succeeded 
in  coloring  with  a  warmer  radiance  the  icy  theo- 
logical peaks. 

2.  Another  result  of  the  struggle  with  Catholi- 
cism was  a  new  emphasis  put  upon  the  Bible, 
causing  a  reversal  of  the  relative  positions  occu- 
pied by  the  material  and  the  formal  principles 
of  the  Reformation. 

The  infallible  authority  of  the  Bible  was  not 
at  first  the  most  important  tenet  of  Protestant- 
ism. That  principle  was  justification  by  faith. 


82          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

This  is  sufficiently  apparent  everywhere  in  the 
early  stages  of  the  Reformation.  For  instance, 
Luther's  loose  and  free  use  of  the  Scriptures  is 
well  known.  Justification  by  faith  was  the  great 
thing,  by  which  all  else,  even  the  Bible  itself, 
was  judged  by  him.  The  conditions  of  the  early 
days  of  Christianity  were  reproduced.  Indeed,  the 
parallel  is  remarkable.  When  at  the  first  Christian- 
ity was  a  matter  of  living  reality  and  made  men 
free  in  the  Spirit,  Christians  were  satisfied  to  be 
led  of  the  Spirit.  In  the  first  religious  exuberance 
of  the  Reformation,  men  again  felt  themselves 
near  to  God  and  under  the  guidance  of  the 
Spirit ;  there  was  no  need  of  external  authority. 
But  just  as  in  those  early  days  the  need  of  an 
external  tangible  authority  was  felt  more  and 
more  as  spiritual  inspiration  declined  and  contro- 
versies threatened  the  church,  so  it  was  again  in 
the  Reformation  days.  Moreover,  the  Protes- 
tant must  have  some  standard  of  appeal  in  the 
conflict  with  his  Catholic  antagonist  who  rested 
so  confidently  upon  the  authority  of  the  church. 
The  leadership  of  the  Spirit  was  too  lofty  and 
intangible  a  conception  for  controversial  pur- 
poses. Hence,  inasmuch  as  the  authority  of  the 
church  had  been  repudiated,  and  the  authority 
of  the  Spirit  was  inadequate,  the  Reformers  fell 
back  upon  the  Bible,  just  as  the  early  Christians 
had  rallied  around  the  apostolic  tradition. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  83 

As  theology,  after  the  Protestant  rejection  of 
the  church,  received  all  the  attention  which  it 
had  previously  shared  with  the  church,  here  also 
an  analogous  result  appeared  in  the  case  of  the 
Bible,  which  hitherto  had  been  theoretically 
regarded  as  co-ordinate  authority  with  tradition 
and  the  church;  it  now  occupied  the  field  alone, 
and  acquired  all  of  the  importance  that  before 
had  been  distributed.  But  this  was  not  all.  Still 
the  standard  of  appeal  was  not  definite  enough. 
Hence  under  the  stress  of  controversy,  in  order 
that  assurance  might  be  doubly  sure,  the  Bible 
was  made  inflexible  by  a  mechanical  theory  of 
inspiration  which  converted  it  into  an  absolutely 
complete,  inerrant,  all-sufficient  Christian  statute 
book.  The  Bible,  so  defined,  was  then  substi- 
tuted for  "justification  by  faith"  as  the  corner- 
stone of  Protestantism.  Thus  the  material  and 
formal  principles  of  the  Reformation  had  ex- 
changed places. 

3.  And  now,  or  along  with  these  two  move- 
ments, another  thing  took  place:  the  system  of 
dogmatics  that  had  been  formulated  by  the  church 
during  the  course  of  its  historical  development, 
and  had  been  taken  up,  elaborated,  and  empha- 
sized by  Protestantism,  was  unconsciously  read 
back  into  the  Bible,  and  was  supposed  to  be 
contained  therein  bodily.  Romanism  had  no 
need  of  such  an  idea,  because  it  boldly  asserted 


84          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

that  the  Bible  revelation  was  continued  in  the 
church,  which  was  therefore  divinely  authorized 
to  promulgate  a  doctrinal  system,  even  one  con- 
taining new  elements.  But  with  Protestantism 
the  case  was  different.  It  could  not  go  beyond 
the  Bible.  And  yet  here  was  its  great  system  of 
theology  which  was  regarded  as  both  a  true  and 
a  necessary  part  of  Christianity.  Evidently, 
therefore,  it  must  be  in  the  Bible.  And  so, 
without  realizing  that  the  dogmatics  had  come 
down  the  historical  stream  and  was  composed 
largely  of  extra-biblical  material,  floated  with 
difficulty  by  proof-texts  often  wrongly  inter- 
preted, the  whole  system  received  the  divine 
sanction  of  its  supposed  biblical  source.  Prot- 
estants read  the  words  of  Paul  and  thought  the 
thoughts  of  Tertullian  and  Augustine  and  Calvin, 
and  Paul  was  held  responsible  for  the  whole 
thing. 

Thus  the  theological  situation  had  become 
greatly  complicated.  Here  was  a  system  of  dog- 
matics derived  generically  from  Catholicism, 
with  false  premises  as  to  its  own  importance  due 
to  the  old  Greek  idea  of  the  saving  value  of 
knowledge,  and  largely  made  up  of  elements  of 
the  ancient  philosophical  and  scientific  culture. 
This  system  had  acquired  even  greater  promi- 
nence when  the  church,  with  which  it  had  former- 
ly shared  attention,  lost  its  hold  upon  Protestants. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  85 

Meanwhile,  under  the  stress  of  controversy,  the 
material  principle  of  the  Reformation,  salvation 
by  faith,  had  yielded  first  place  to  the  formal 
principle  of  the  solitary  and  all-sufficient  author- 
ity of  the  Scriptures ;  while,  in  the  exigencies  of 
the  situation,  and  under  false  ideas  of  inspiration, 
these  were  transformed  into  a  hard-and-fast  arti- 
ficial Christian  statute  book.  Then  the  dogmatic 
system,  with  its  false  presuppositions  and  ancient 
culture,  was  read  back  into  the  Bible  with  its  new 
mechanical  limitations,  and  all  was  surrounded 
by  the  divine  halo  that  belongs  to  religion  alone. 
Hands  off  theology!  hands  off  the  authorized  view 
of  the  Bible  !  because  the  gospel  of  Jesus  is  divine. 
With  error  bolstering  error,  and  the  sanctities  of 
religion  made  to  bolster  both,  is  it  any  wonder 
that  for  long  weary  years  the  error  held  sway, 
and  still  does  so?  For  even  now  it  is  only  by 
gradual  degrees  that  the  real  truth  concerning 
this  historical  process  is  becoming  clear  and 
making  its  influence  felt. 

We  now  come  to  another  and  entirely  new 
element  in  the  post-Reformation  eclipse  of  the 
gospel. 

A  change  had  been  passing  over  the  thought 
of  the  world.  In  the  intellectual  renaissance  of 
the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  a  new  cul- 
ture had  been  born.  This  had  taken  place  con- 


86          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

temporaneously  with  the  Reformation,  but  it  had 
not  yet  acquired  enough  importance  seriously  to 
affect  the  question  there  at  issue.  It  was  the 
modern  spirit  at  work  in  the  Reformation,  not  the 
modern  culture.  But  the  new  knowledge  grew 
apace  as  discoveries,  colonization,  inventions,  and 
commercial  enterprises  multiplied.  A  new 
science  was  built  up  in  harmony  with  the  new 
knowledge  of  nature  and  of  life.  Perspectives 
changed.  New  views  of  life  emerged  and  new 
valuations  of  thought.  In  a  word,  a  new  cul- 
ture had  altered  the  whole  aspect  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  substituted  another  world-view  for  that 
of  the  ancients.  Almost  literally  the  old  heavens 
and  the  old  earth  had  passed  away :  lo !  the 
ancient  world  was  gone.  The  place  that  had 
known  it  now  knew  it  no  more. 

All  things  had  become  new — except  in  the- 
ology. "Ay,  there's  the  rub."  Let  it  be  recalled 
that  in  the  early  transformation  of  Christianity 
from  a  pistis  to  a  gnosis  the  contemporary  science 
and  philosophy  had  been  taken  up  into  theology 
and  made  a  component  part  of  the  religion, 
equally  divine  with  the  gospel  which  they  were 
used  to  express ;  that  this  error  was  not  eradi- 
cated by  the  Reformation,  but  was  taken  over 
into  Protestantism  along  with  the  Catholic 
dogmatics.  This  meant  that  in  Protestant  theol- 
ogy the  ancient  culture  was  projected  into  the 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  87 

modern  world  under  the  name  and  protection  of 
Christianity. 

As  the  volume  of  new  knowledge  increased,  the 
modern  mind  did  not  understand  the  theology 
formed  out  of  elements  of  the  obsolete  culture,  and 
dropped  it.  There  arose  a  new  king  that  knew 
not  Joseph.  The  forms  of  speech  that  had 
moved  the  ancient  world  did  not  appeal  to  the 
new  age,  and  were  with  difficulty  even  under- 
stood by  it.  The  better  it  was  adapted  for  its 
purposes  in  the  ancient  time,  the  less  value  did 
it  possess  for  influencing  the  new.  And  so  it 
happened  that  systematic  theology  still  farther 
lost  touch  with  the  masses,  who  either  gave 
themselves  to  practical  religious  activities,  in- 
nocent of  doctrine,  or  patched  up  a  system,  each 
man  for  himself,  regardless  of  the  historical 
connections,  and  thus  threw  Protestantism  into 
the  theological  chaos  that  characterizes  it  in  the 
popular  mind.  The  most  disastrous  results,  how- 
ever, appeared  among  the  educated  classes, 
where  men  and  women  living  in  the  atmosphere 
of  the  new  culture  were  alienated  from  a  Chris- 
tianity which  seemed  to  be  identified  with  anti- 
quated knowledge,  while  the  alternative  had  not 
yet  presented  itself  of  changing  the  theology  to 
meet  the  new  conditions. 

Here,  then,  was  an  entirely  new  eclipse  of 
the  gospel.  It  was  eclipsed  once  by  its  early 


88          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

entanglement  with  philosophy.  That  was  bad 
enough,  as  it  was  thereby  removed  from  its 
true  sphere  of  operation;  but  it  was  still  tol- 
erable, inasmuch  as  Christianity  continued  to 
appeal  to  men's  minds  as  long  as  the  thought 
which  it  had  adopted  continued  to  pass  current — 
that  is,  up  to  the  modern  era.  But  when  the 
ancient  culture  became  obsolete,  theology  ceased 
to  have  this  redeeming  virtue,  except  as  men 
threw  themselves  back  into  the  atmosphere 
of  the  ancient  world.  The  former  obscuration 
of  the  gospel  was  due  to  a  change  in  Christianity; 
this  new  eclipse  was  due  to  a  change  in  the 
world's  common  stock  of  knowledge  ;  due,  in- 
deed, to  the  very  fact  that  traditional  Chris- 
tianity did  not  change,  and  could  not,  until  the 
old  first  heresy  was  discovered  and  removed. 
Theology  might  well  have  taken  to  itself  the 
message  of  the  poet's  words  : 

New  occasions  teach  new  duties ;  Time  makes  ancient 
good  uncouth  ; 

They  must  upward  still,  and  onward,  who  would  keep 
abreast  of  Truth. 

Lo,  before  us  gleam  her  camp-fires !  we  ourselves  must 
Pilgrims  be, 

Launch  our  Mayflower,  and  steer  boldly  through  the  des- 
perate winter  sea ; 

Nor  attempt  the  Future's  portals  with  the  Past's  blood- 
rusted  key. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  89 

III.      THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY    REFORMATION. 

In  the  conditions  just  described  are  laid  bare 
the  elements  of  the  nineteenth  century  theologi- 
cal ferment:  a  new  culture,  in  which  the  obso- 
lete science  and  philosophy  of  the  ancient  world 
are  perpetuated  under  the  guise  of  a  divine  theol- 
ogy that  has  become  a  component  part  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  this  theology  demanding  the  allegiance 
of  the  modern  spirit,  weary  of  speculative  subtle- 
ties, and  hungry  for  religious  reality.  This  spirit 
had  been  nearly  dormant,  so  far  as  religious  ac- 
tivity was  concerned,  since  the  Reformation,  appar- 
ently having  exhausted  itself  in  that  great  strug- 
gle. It  had  made  little  protest  against  the  suc- 
ceeding re-obscuration  of  the  gospel.  But  now, 
in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it 
awoke  to  new  life,  and  began  again  the  search 
for  truth  in  the  religious  realm.  The  result  is  the 
nineteenth  century  Reformation — as  truly  a  great 
Protestant  reform  as  was  that  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  Indeed,  it  is  the  complement  of  that 
movement :  the  theological  completion  of  the 
practical  and  ecclesiastical  reformation.  As  such, 
it  strikes  at  the  old  Greek  fallacy,  there  over- 
looked, that  transformed  Christianity  from  a  faith 
into  a  philosophy.  While  the  Lutheran  Reforma- 
tion was  practical,  although  with  theological  im- 
plications, the  new  Reformation  is  theological,  but 
destined  to  have  far-reaching  practical  results. 


90          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

Although  developing  into  a  theological  re- 
form, however,  it  was  not  such  in  the  begin- 
ning, either  in  motive  or  in  point  of  attachment. 
The  theological  citadel  was  too  strongly  forti- 
fied, even  though  in  error,  to  have  been  taken 
by  assault.  In  fact,  the  new  movement  started 
wholly  without  reference  to  dogmatic  considera- 
tions, and  with  a  temper  the  farthest  removed 
from  the  dogmatic  spirit.  The  key  to  the  whole 
situation  lies  in  this,  that  the  re-awakened  spirit, 
true  to  its  characteristic  genius,  laid  hold  of  that 
which  was  most  tangible  for  scientific  purposes  — 
namely,  the  Christian  records  as  contained  in  the 
New  Testament  literature  and  the  existing  mon- 
uments of  the  history  of  the  church.  This  led 
to  the  creation  of  the  new  sciences  of  biblical 
exegesis  and  church  history.  The  result  of  this 
return  to  the  Christian  records  was  not  so  much 
a  warfare  upon  theology  as  an  ignoring  of  it. 
The  new  study  cut  back  of  the  entire  stream  of 
dogmatic  development,  and  began  de  novo  to 
work  upon  the  sources. 

The  investigation  into  the  history  of  the  church 
has  gradually  laid  bare  the  varied  fortune  of 
Christianity  in  the  world,  and  brought  to  light 
the  main  facts  relating  to  the  development  of  the 
Catholic  church  and  creed.  The  results,  as  they 
affect  the  present  discussion,  have  furnished  the 
subject-matter  of  the  preceding  chapter  and  the 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  91 

first  two  sections  of  this.  Little  more  needs  to 
be  said  here  ;  it  remains  only  to  point  out  briefly 
the  influence  of  this  new  study  of  church  history 
upon  the  rediscovery  of  the  gospel,  (i)  In  the 
first  place,  the  whole  process  of  the  obscuration 
of  the  gospel  here  lies  before  us.  We  see  the 
formation  and  progress  of  the  dogmatic  stream, 
taking  its  rise  in  post-apostolic  times,  flowing 
through  an  alien  culture,  and  emptying  its  mixed 
and  turbid  waters  into  modern  religious  life.  The 
first  step  toward  the  rediscovery  of  the  gospel  is 
this  discovery  of  its  obscuration.  (2)  This  dispels 
the  illusion  that  eighteenth-century  Christianity 
was  the  same  thing  as  New  Testament  Christianity. 
So  successfully  had  eighteenth-century  orthodoxy 
been  read  back  into  the  New  Testament  that  or- 
thodox and  infidel  polemicists  alike  took  it 
for  granted  that  the  Christian  religion  stood  or 
fell  with  contemporary  theology.  The  knowl- 
edge of  the  historical  formation  of  dogmatics  in 
post-biblical  times  relieves  the  New  Testament 
from  the  onus  of  upholding  the  metaphysical 
conclusions  of  scholasticism.  (3)  This  sug- 
gests what,  after  all,  is  the  chief  value  of  church 
history  so  far  as  the  recovery  of  the  gospel  is 
concerned.  It  clears  the  way  for  the  New  Testa- 
ment to  exert  its  normal  influence.  By  the  dis- 
closure of  the  heterogeneous  influences  surround- 
ing the  gospel  all  through  its  history,  and  by 


92          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

making  plain  the  changes  in  Christianity  due  to 
its  absorption  of  foreign  elements  from  this  en- 
vironment, the  work  of  church  history  has  led  us 
back  to  the  New  Testament  in  a  new  frame  of 
mind,  and  with  a  keener  and  more  critical  appre- 
ciation of  its  teachings. 

In  this  new  study  of  the  New  Testament,  the 
formative  literature  of  Christianity,  we  come  to 
the  heart  of  the  nineteenth-century  movement — 
the  open  Bible.  It  was  the  rediscovery  of  the 
Bible  that  led  to  the  recovery  of  the  gospel. 

For  centuries  the  Bible  had  been  a  closed  book. 
In  the  earliest  days  the  gospels  and  apostolic 
letters  doubtless -had  a  considerable  circulation, 
and  were  widely  read  in  the  churches.  But  as 
Latin  and  Greek  ceased  to  be  the  languages  of 
popular  speech,  the  people  did  not  understand 
the  Bible  as  it  was  read  in  the  liturgical  worship 
of  the  church,  and  could  not  have  read  it  for 
themselves,  even  if  they  had  possessed  copies  of 
it.  But  these  they  did  not  have.  From  purely 
mechanical  reasons  it  was  next  to  impossible 
to  give  the  Scriptures  a  general  circulation. 
The  epoch-making  importance  of  the  printing- 
press  in  this  respect  must  not  be  forgotten. 
Furthermore,  the  emphasis  .put  upon  the  church 
as  a  saving  institution  had  transferred  popular 
attention  to  the  church  with  its  private  confes- 
sional and  its  public  worship,  and  the  people  had 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  93 

lost  practical  interest  in  the  Bible.  To  this  must 
be  added  the  fact  that  the  right  of  authoritative 
interpretation  had  been  monopolized  by  the 
church  in  the  persons  of  its  clergy,  so  that  the 
people  had  no  right  to  read  and  interpret  the  Scrip- 
tures for  themselves.  For  these  reasons  by  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Bible  was 
almost  an  unknown  book. 

The  rediscovery  of  the  Bible  began  with  the 
Lutheran  Reformation ;  and,  conversely,  began 
that  Reformation.  It  was  the  discovery  of  a  com- 
plete copy  of  the  Vulgate  in  the  library  of  the 
university  at  Erfurt  that  started  Martin  Luther  on 
his  career  of  reform.  The  abuses  existing  in  the 
complex  ceremonialism  of  contemporary  Catholi- 
cism could  not  stand  before  the  direct  religious 
simplicity  and  spiritual  power  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment gospel.  Indeed,  it  is  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation  that  leads  the  Catholic  church  to 
oppose  the  popular  study  of  the  Scriptures.  The 
recovered  Bible  is  destined  to  bury  Catholicism. 

But  the  Bible  did  not  become  known  among 
the  people  at  large  at  the  time  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. It  had  to  make  its  way  in  the  face  of  de- 
termined opposition  and  persecution.  Traces  of 
the  Catholic  idea  of  the  danger  of  a  popular 
reading  of  the  book  were  carried  over  into  Prot- 
estantism. The  educated  classes,  especially, 
felt  that  the  common  people  could  not  under- 


94          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

stand  it  and  would  be  excited  to  lawlessness  by 
the  reading  of  it ;  and  this  view  seemed  to  gain 
some  justification  from  the  individualistic  and 
revolutionary  aspects  of  the  Reformation.  Hence 
it  was  many  years  before  the  Bible  could  be  read 
in  peace.  Moreover,  it  had  to  be  translated  into 
the  modern  languages  before  it  could  gain  gen- 
eral circulation.  Still  farther,  the  undue  promi- 
nence that  Protestantism  early  gave  to  dogmatics 
made  the  creed,  rather  than  the  Scriptures,  the 
center  of  interest.  And  when  men  finally  reached 
the  Bible  they  came  to  it  through  the  creed, 
and  therefore  interpreted  it  in  the  light  of  cer- 
tain theological  presuppositions.  It  could  not 
be  understood  that  way,  for  it  is  a  book  of  reli- 
gion, not  of  dogmatics.  Besides  this,  the  artificial 
and  mechanical  theories  of  inspiration  that  early 
came  to  hedge  it  about  added  to  the  obscuration 
of  its  true  nature,  and  increased  the  difficulty  of 
getting  at  its  real  teaching.  Thus  it  was  that 
the  open  book  still  remained  a  closed  treasure- 
house. 

But  this  could  not  go  on  forever.  Given  the 
aggressive  and  enlightening  conditions  of  modern 
life,  the  misunderstanding  of  the  Bible  was 
bound  to  give  way  in  time  and  its  real  char- 
acter to  assert  itself.  This  was  accomplished 
along  two  main  channels,  these  sometimes  run- 
ning together  in  individuals  who  sympathized 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  95 

with  both  movements,  and  perhaps  never  clearly 
separable  in  any  period,  but  yet  always  more  or 
less  distinct  in  genesis  and  genius.  Both  move- 
ments were  due  to  the  modern  spirit,  of  which 
they  were  the  religious  expression,  and  to  which, 
each  in  its  own  way,  they  always  remained  faith- 
ful. The  one  channel  of  Bible  reopening  was 
popular  and  practical,  the  other  was  literary  and 
scientific. 

The  popular  reopening  of  the  Bible. 

Gradually  the  Bible  was  translated  into  the 
more  important  languages  of  Europe,  and  found 
its  way  into  the  homes  of  the  people.  The  inven- 
tion of  the  printing-press  made  this  general  circu- 
lation possible  to  a  degree  hitherto  entirely  beyond 
precedent  or  even  belief.  The  Reformation  theo- 
retically gave  every  man  the  right  to  read  this 
book  for  himself  when  it  thus  came  to  his  door, 
and  the  new  spirit  of  individualism  soon  convert- 
ed the  theoretical  right  into  a  practical  privilege. 
So  the  Bible  was  everywhere  welcomed  and  read. 
Its  simple  presentation  of  the  gospel  came  upon 
the  world  like  a  new  revelation  direct  from  heaven. 
The  masses  of  the  people  were  not  deeply  inter- 
ested in  theology ;  they  wanted  daily  inspira- 
tion and  help.  In  the  Bible  they  found  it ;  again 
"the  common  people  heard  him  gladly."  And 
among  them  it  encountered  the  minimum  of  dog- 


96          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

matic  theory  to  give  it  a  false  coloring.  As 
Jesus  turned  away  from  learned,  theology-har- 
dened Judea  to  the  freer  religious  atmosphere 
and  virgin  soil  of  Galilee  as  offering  a  more  prom- 
ising field  of  labor,  so  now  again  it  was  true  that, 
when  his  message  went  forth  in  the  language 
of  the  people,  it  was  most  quickly  understood 
and  most  gladly  received  by  those  who  were  the 
farthest  removed  from  the  blinding  influences 
of  traditional  theology. 

After  two  centuries  of  leavening  operation  in 
the  quiet  seclusion  of  the  home  the  spirit  of 
the  Bible  began  to  make  itself  felt,  and  led  to 
great  popular  revivals  of  religion.  It  opened 
the  eyes  of  Carey  and  his  associates  to  the 
duty  of  the  Christian  to  the  heathen,  and  gave 
birth  to  the  new  foreign  missionary  movement 
that  has  set  itself  seriously  to  the  task  of 
the  salvation  of  the  unchristian  world.  It 
raised  up  the  Wesleys  to  light  the  torch  of 
New  Testament  religion  in  England.  It  caused 
the  wave  of  revival  that  has  swept  over  this 
country,  in  which  Finney  and  Moody  and 
scores  of  other  evangelists  have  been  preach- 
ing a  practical  New  Testament  gospel.  It  has 
passed  into  the  regular  pulpits  of  the  land  and 
given  a  new  inspiration  to  every  preacher  of 
Christianity.  More  and  more  its  power  has 
extended  to  the  educated  elements  of  society 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  97 

and  has  added  a  spiritual  tone  to  culture.  By 
direct  activity  and  indirect  influence,  the  newly 
discovered  spirit  of  New  Testament  religion  is 
changing  the  whole  aspect  of  the  Christian 
world. 

Here  is  a  profound  and  widespread  popular 
recovery  of  the  gospel,  in  its  original  spirit  and 
practical  purpose,  due,  not  to  dogmatic  theology, 
but  to  two  hundred  years  of  the  open  Bible  in 
the  homes  of  the  common  people.  The  remnants 
of  the  ancient  and  mediaeval  theology  mixed  up 
with  the  movement  are  a  source  of  weakness, 
and  have  been  a  hindrance.  The  movement  has 
no  coherent  theology  of  its  own.  It  is  like  the 
Lutheran  Reformation  in  this  respect,  only  that 
it  has  gone  farther  in  breaking  away  from  Catho- 
lic dogmatics.  It  is  a  religious  revival,  and  its 
theology  is  a  patchwork ;  many  of  its  adherents 
do  not  know  where  the  pieces  came  from,  or 
why  they  are  put  together  in  one  form  rather 
than  in  another.  It  is  a  distinct  return  to  the 
teachings  of  the  New  Testament,  but  these  teach- 
ings are  unconsciously  woven  together  with  the 
warp  of  post-biblical  dogmatics.  "The  voice  is 
Jacob's  voice,  but  the  hands  are  the  hands  of 
Esau":  the  gospel  is  the  New  Testament  gospel, 
but  the  theology  is  that  of  an  antiquated  culture. 
Herein  is  brought  to  light  the  theological  aspect 
that  the  Reformation  has  now  assumed. 


98          RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

The  scientific  reopening  of  the  Bible. 

The  theological  implications  of  the  nineteenth 
century  Reformation  become  more  apparent  as 
we  trace  the  second  channel  of  Bible  recovery. 
We  turn  from  the  popular  world  to  the  world 
of  letters. 

As  soon  as  the  new  world-view  that  came  in 
with  the  beginning  of  the  modern  era  had  gained 
a  firm  hold,  and  the  new  culture  had  acquired 
assured  results,  there  began  a  warfare  between 
the  new  culture  and  the  old.  Sometimes  this 
took  the  form  of  a  feeling  of  irritation  toward 
surviving  ideas,  without  a  clearly  defined  con- 
sciousness of  what  the  trouble  was.  Sometimes 
there  was  open  antagonism.  From  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  the  conflict  has  been 
going  on  as  a  semi-philosophical,  semi-literary, 
semi-critical  movement,  which  is  inextricably 
mixed  up  with  the  theological  problem.  English 
deism,  French  rationalism,  German  enlighten- 
ment, romanticism,  and  idealism  could  not  be 
ignored  if  an  attempt  were  here  made  to  trace 
modern  theological  thought.  But  none  of  these 
helped  directly  to  place  Christianity  on  its  his- 
torical foundations.  The  old  theological  entan- 
glements still  remained,  either  included  in  the 
movements  themselves  or  tacitly  attributed  to 
the  Christianity  that  they  opposed.  These,  how- 
ever, all  helped  on  the  spread  of  the  new  cul- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  99 

ture,  and  increased  the  growing  alienation  from 
Christianity  on  the  part  of  educated  people. 
The  elements  of  ancient  culture  bound  up  in 
traditional  theology  came  more  and  more  to 
repel  the  man  familiar  with  the  new  science  and 
looking  at  the  world  in  the  new  way. 

Different  classes  of  cultured  people  were 
affected  in  different  ways. 

There  remained  some,  among  them  apparently 
the  majority  of  professional  theologians  and  reli- 
gious teachers,  who  were  more  influenced  by  the 
dogmatic  environment  than  by  the  atmosphere 
of  modern  life.  They  still  lived  in  the  old  world 
of  theological  notions,  and  the  new  culture  had 
not  made  enough  impression  upon  them  to  cause 
them  to  realize  the  presence  of  any  gulf  between 
the  two.  They  saw  no  "problem"  peculiar  to 
the  new  conditions,  and  stood  confidently  by 
traditional  Christianity. 

Another  class,  more  deeply  influenced  by 
modern  education,  and  feeling  the  uncongeniali- 
ty  of  the  ancient  culture  surviving  in  traditional 
theology,  still  realized  so  keenly  the  need  and 
blessings  of  religion  that  they  clung  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  lulled  to  sleep  their  rational  powers 
in  the  religious  realm.  There  are  yet  many  such 
among  us,  strong  religious  natures,  who  think 
acutely  enough  about  other  subjects,  while  in 
matters  pertaining  to  religion  they  do  not  pre- 


ioo        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

tend  to  think.  They  hide  behind  the  convenient 
plea  of  "mystery,"  without  any  suspicion  that 
the  mystery  is  often  due,  not  to  difficulties  inher- 
ent in  the  gospel  itself,  but  to  the  change  in  the 
world's  thought  which  has  made  an  obsolete 
extra-biblical  theology  unintelligible. 

These  two  classes  constituted  the  "orthodox" 
of  the  day — those  who  stood  by  Christianity  ac- 
cording to  the  traditional  dogmatic  statements  ; 
not  according  to  the  New  Testament,  necessarily, 
for  not  this,  but  the  creeds,  whether  written  or 
unwritten,  outside  the  New  Testament  or  read 
into  it,  had  been  made  the  standard  of  ortho- 
doxy. 

Other  people  tried  to  hold  Christianity  intel- 
ligently as  well  as  religiously,  while  still  accept- 
ing modern  thought,  and  found  themselves 
between  two  fires.  They  gained  only  mental  tur- 
moil, alternating  hope  and  despair,  being  one  day 
full  of  intellectual  doubt,  the  next  giving  play  to 
the  religious  feelings ;  having  just  enough  light 
to  see  the  darkness,  but  not  to  dispel  it — of  all 
men  most  miserable. 

Still  others,  in  whom  the  literary  and  scien- 
tific element  predominated  over  the  religious, 
accepted  the  necessities  of  modern  thought,  and 
gave  up  Christianity;  sometimes  carelessly, 
sometimes,  where  the  religious  nature  was 
deeper,  in  hopeless  sadness  and  pathetic  despair. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  101 

None  of  these  four  classes  saw  where  the  real 
difficulty  lay.  Orthodox  and  infidel  alike  re- 
garded Christianity  as  being  in  truth  the  tradi- 
tional thing  which  passed  under  that  name  in  his 
own  age.  In  this  Voltaire  and  his  orthodox  an- 
tagonists were  agreed.  The  old  heresy  was  bear- 
ing fruit :  Origen's  theology  was  having  an  unex- 
pected effect. 

Still  another  class,  represented  by  German 
idealism,  culminating  in  Hegel,  sought  to  escape 
by  filling  the  old  doctrines  with  a  new  meaning, 
and  building  up  an  elaborate  speculative  philoso- 
phy which  should  reconcile  faith  and  reason; 
philosophy  was  religion  intelligently  thought 
out — the  old  Greek  conception  again. 

Another  school  of  thinkers,  with  philosophi- 
cal sympathies  akin  to  Kant,  represented  most 
prominently  by  Schleiermacher,  and  including 
the  intuitionalists  and  romanticists,  went  to  the 
other  extreme,  and  declared  that  religion  had 
nothing  to  do  with  science  and  philosophy,  and  was 
in  no  way  dependent  upon  contemporary  culture 
in  any  age,  but  belonged  exclusively  to  the  realm 
of  feeling :  "religion  is  the  feeling  of  dependence." 

Thus  there  was  warfare  in  the  world  of 
thought,  there  was  ferment  everywhere,  and  still 
it  was  not  perceived  that  the  cause  was  a  new 
world-view  contending  against  the  ancient  culture 
surviving  in  Christian  dogmatics. 


102        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

It  was  under  such  conditions  as  these  that,  in 
the  fourth  decade  of  the  last  century,  Chris- 
tianity was  rudely  brought  back  to  its  historical 
foundations  by  the  appearance  of  Strauss's  Life 
of  Jesus,  Baur's  work  on  the  pastoral  epistles,  and 
Vatke's  history  of  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. They  burst  like  a  bomb  upon  all  camps 
of  religious  thought,  and  marked  a  new  epoch 
for  Christianity. 

As  with  all  apparently  sudden  movements, 
however,  this  one  also  was  not  so  abrupt  as  ap- 
peared upon  the  surface.  Duringthe  previous  cen- 
tury Semler,  Lessing,  and  Herder  had  enunciated 
the  principle  that  the  books  of  the  Bible  should 
be  read  and  criticised  as  human  productions;  and 
from  that  time  on  the  idea  was  never  lost,  but 
kept  gaining  ground.  The  transcendent  impor- 
tance of  Strauss  and  Baur  lay  in  the  fact  that 
they  were  the  first  to  apply  this  idea  systemati- 
cally in  an  actual  attempt  to  understand  the  his- 
torical life  of  Jesus  and  the  historical  conditions 
giving  rise  to  the  epistles.  This  significance 
which  they  had  is  entirely  independent  of  the 
conclusions  that  they  reached.  Those  conclu- 
sions are  now  almost  universally  rejected,  but 
the  idea  and  method  of  biblical  investigation 
then  introduced  mark  the  beginning,  and  form 
the  basis,  of  the  modern  science  of  biblical  exe- 
gesis. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  103 

The  new  study  of  the  Bible  differs  from  the 
old  in  important  particulars,  and  possesses  char- 
acteristics peculiarly  its  own. 

A  new  temper  animates  it.  This  point  hardly 
needs  to  be  discussed  further.  The  same  spirit 
that  had  turned  from  theories  about  nature  to 
a  study  of  nature  herself  here  turns  from  no- 
tions about  the  Bible  to  the  Bible  itself.  It 
attempts  to  lay  aside  preconceived  ideas  and 
dogmatic  prejudices  in  an  earnest  and  honest 
attempt  to  discover  what  it  is  that  the  Bible 
really  means  to  say.  Thus  it  inaugurated  a  bib- 
lical exegesis  carried  on  solely  in  the  interests  of 
truth,  and  not  for  theological  considerations;  at 
least  this  is  true  in  theory. 

A  different  method  also  characterizes  the 
new  exegesis.  The  same  scientific  method  that 
had  gained  an  assured  place  and  achieved  such 
fruitful  results  in  the  study  of  nature  is  here 
applied  to  the  study  of  the  Bible.  The  alle- 
gorical interpretation  that  had  been  employed 
by  Origen  and  the  early  church  in  general  had 
continued  to  influence  the  study  of  the  Bible 
up  to  the  last  century.  It  rendered  any  cer- 
tain knowledge  of  Scripture  teaching  impos- 
sible. A  Jewish  rabbi  once  said  that  a  lofty 
peculiarity  of  the  Word  of  God  was  that  it 
could  have  from  five  to  nine  different  meanings, 
while  the  word  of  man,  such  was  its  poverty, 


104        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

could  have  but  one.  As  long  as  such  a  concep- 
tion, or  even  the  idea  of  a  double  meaning,  viti- 
ated exegesis,  it  is  evident  that  there  could  be 
no  fixed  body  of  Bible  knowledge.  The  choice 
between  the  five  to  nine  meanings  was  deter- 
mined by  a  man's  dogmatic  predilections.  The 
new  methed  does  away  with  this  persistent  error. 
It  starts  out  with  the  idea  that  the  books  of  the 
Bible  were  produced  under  definite  historical 
conditions,  and  were  addressed  to  definite  indi- 
viduals and  communities,  with  a  definite  mean- 
ing and  for  a  specific  purpose,  generally  without 
any  reference  whatever  to  a  more  remote  future. 
God's  message  in  the  Bible  to  the  future  age 
depends  upon  the  nature  of  the  message  to  a 
given  present,  rather  than  upon  the  peculiarity 
of  its  transmission,  the  miraculousness  of  its  pre- 
vision, or  the  multitudinousness  of  its  meanings; 
and  the  way  to  learn  the  meaning  of  that  message 
is  first  to  find  out  definitely  what  the  author 
meant  to  say  to  his  contemporaries,  and  therein 
discover  the  universal  gospel  which  the  divine 
Author  has  given  to  all  generations. 

The  new  exegesis  thus  takes  a  different  atti- 
tude toward  the  Bible.  The  old  view  had  no 
sense  of  movement  or  particularity.  The  Bible 
was  all  on  one  level  plane,  as  if  complete  inspira- 
tion meant  absolute  uniformity.  Everything 
was  of  universal  application  unless  it  was  proved 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  105 

to  be  particular  and  local.  Paul's  letters,  for 
instance,  were  regarded  as  general  treatises  for 
all  Christians  of  all  times,  in  their  form  of  state- 
ment as  well  as  in  their  underlying  principles. 
This  accounts  for  the  discussions  that  have  taken 
place  about  such  an  injunction  as,  "Let  the 
women  keep  silence  in  the  churches."  It  ac- 
counts also  for  the  fact  that  theology  has  re- 
tained so  much  of  Paul's  Hebrew  cast  of  thought. 
The  new  science  breaks  up  this  forced  univer- 
sality of  application,  and  sees  in  the  epistles 
local  and  particular  injunctions,  written  to  meet 
concrete  needs.  The  presumption  is  that  such 
is  the  case  with  any  given  passage  in  the  Bible 
unless  it  can  be  shown  to  be  of  permanent  validi- 
ty, either  in  its  existing  form  of  statement  or 
in  the  underlying  principle.  While  the  old  exe- 
gesis, at  least  that  of  post-Reformation  Protes- 
tantism, regarded  the  Bible  as  an  infallible  statute 
book,  the  new  study,  with  its  reconstruction  of 
historical  conditions,  has  discovered  that  it  is  a 
book  of  life  rather  than  of  law,  a  book  of  re- 
ligion rather  than  of  dogmatics,  the  constitution 
of  the  church  rather  than  its  specific  legislation. 
It  is  the  record  of  God's  dealings  with  men  for 
their  salvation,  and  so  we  get  back  of  the  book 
to  the  living  God  behind  it.  In  a  word,  the  old 
exegesis  was  characteristically  dogmatic,  the  new 
is  characteristically  historical  and  scientific. 


106        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

This  way  of  looking  at  the  Bible  does  not  at 
all  deny  the  reality  of  its  divine  inspiration  or 
the  permanent  value  of  its  teaching,  but  makes 
it  a  book  that  is  intended  to  be  understood, 
instead  of  a  collection  of  mysteries  whose  mean- 
ing is  to  be  guessed  at — understood,  at  least,  so 
far  as  its  profound  truths  may  be  grasped  by 
human  thought.  The  arbitrary  hindrances  to  its 
understanding  are  removed. 

The  method  of  this  scientific  exegesis  is  be- 
yond question,  and  is  itself  the  most  valuable 
result  achieved,  because  it  makes  possible  a  pro- 
gressingly  definite  knowledge  of  what  the  Bible 
teaches.  The  specific  results  hitherto  worked  out 
by  the  new  method  are  not  all  fully  established, 
and  in  some  cases  may  be  superseded,  as  have  been 
the  conclusions  of  Strauss  and  Baur.  Yet  not 
all  of  them.  Sixty  years  of  scientific  work 
in  this  field  have  yielded  unprecedentedly  rich 
returns  in  assured  Bible  knowledge.  It  is  worth 
noting,  parenthetically,  that  one  proof  of  this 
is  the  greater  unity  of  the  various  evangelical 
denominations  of  Protestantism.  They  all  pro- 
fess to  take  their  stand  upon  the  Bible.  As 
they  have  ceased  to  guess  at  its  meaning  and 
warp  its  teaching  by  dogmatic  prejudices,  and 
have  honestly  tried  to  find  out  what  it  says,  the 
denominations  that  are  loyal  to  the  Bible  have 
of  necessity  approached  each  other.  Herein  also 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  107 

lies  the  hope  and  the  prophecy  of  the  coming 
union  of  Protestantism. 

The  general  result  of  this  literary  and  scien- 
tific reopening  of  the  Bible  has  been  a  decided 
movement  from  traditional  Christianity  back  to 
New  Testament  Christianity.  It  has  therefore 
led  to  a  striking  recovery  of  the  gospel.  Go- 
ing back  of  the  long  theological  development 
to  the  perennial  source  of  Christianity,  we  have 
found  ourselves  again  in  the  religious  atmosphere 
of  the  first  century,  and  have  felt  again  the 
mighty  power  of  the  giant  young  gospel  moving 
out  in  sublime  confidence  against  the  world.  We 
have  lived  once  more  in  days  when  Christian 
thought  was  a  part  of  Christian  life  and  led  it  on. 
We  have  felt  ourselves  to  be  in  the  midst  of  re- 
ligious realities  instead  of  theological  systems, 
and  have  rejoiced  with  the  joy  of  the  early  Chris- 
tians in  a  gospel  that  is  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation  for  everyone  that  believeth.  Perhaps 
more  than  we  realize,  this  clear  vision  of  the  New 
Testament  gospel  has  influenced  all  channels  of 
present-day  thought  and  life. 

In  this  general  movement  back  to  New  Testa- 
ment Christianity  one  of  the  most  noteworthy 
results  has  been  the  recovery  of  the  historical 
Jesus  and  the  consequent  transfer  of  emphasis 
from  the  creeds  to  the  Christ.  The  New  Testa- 
ment has  been  found  to  be  full  of  Christ  — his 


io8        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

powerful  and  persuasive  personality,  his  wonder- 
ful redeeming  love  for  men,  his  welcome  disclo- 
sure of  the  Father's  heart,  his  cheering  presenta- 
tion of  a  new  life  and  the  way  to  gain  it ;  but  no 
theological  system  explaining  all  this.  The  re- 
sult was  inevitable.  The  modern  spirit,  weary  of 
metaphysical  theories  in  religion,  suspicious  of  a 
theology  that  was  intertwined  with  scientific  and 
philosophic  conceptions  which  had  already  be- 
come effete,  turned  with  joyous  relief  from 
mediaeval  Catholic  dogmatics  back  to  the  historic 
life  of  the  Man  of  Galilee.  This  person  has  not 
been  philosophically  defined  to  a  full  extent ;  in- 
deed, there  is  not  a  consuming  desire  to  define 
him.  To  know  and  love  him  is  felt  to  be  better. 
Men  have  turned  from  theories  about  him  to  the 
blessed  reality  of  his  presence  and  his  power,  and 
are  content.1 

The  recovery  of  the  gospel  just  described  dif- 
fers from  the  popular  recovery  referred  to  above 
in  that  this  movement,  having  come  through  the 
channel  of  literary  and  scientific  thought  and 
criticism,  is  more  conscious  of  what  it  is  about, 
more  scientific  in  its  method,  more  intelligent  in 
its  conclusions,  and  more  keenly  sensible  of  the 
consequences  involved. 

For  this  reason  the  theological  implications  of 
the  nineteenth  century  Reformation  are  more 

1  See  Introduction,  pp.  xxiy-xxvi. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  109 

clearly  apparent  here  than  in  the  popular  move- 
ment. Starting  with  a  scientific  study  of  the 
Christian  sources,  without  any  reference  to  dog- 
matic considerations,  conclusions  have  been 
reached  that  have  turned  indifference  to  tradi- 
tional dogmatics  into  antagonism.  This  has  been 
due  to  the  twofold  reason  that,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  farther  the  new  study  of  the  Bible  has  pro- 
ceeded, the  more  evident  it  has  become  that  the 
traditional  theological  system  not  only  is  not 
found  there,  but  actually  does  violence  to  the 
New  Testament  gospel ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
from  the  study  of  church  history,  the  rise  of  this 
system,  and  the  extra-biblical  sources  from  which 
it  largely  drew  its  material,  together  with  its 
varied  fortune  in  the  world,  have  been  discov- 
ered in  post-apostolic  times.  Among  educated 
people  who  have  gone  to  the  New  Testament  for 
an  acquaintance  with  Christianity  at  first  hand, 
and  who  have  acquired  some  accurate  knowledge 
of  what  is  there  taught,  there  has  consequently 
been  a  growing  dissatisfaction  with  the  tradi- 
tional theological  system  that  seems  to  them  not 
to  do  justice  at  the  present  day  to  this  New  Tes- 
tament gospel.  Therefore,  while  the  work  of 
gospel  recovery  is  destined  to  proceed  still  farther 
as  the  scientific  study  of  the  Bible  continues,  yet 
along  with  this  activity  the  religious  movement 
has  now  assumed  a  new  phase — the  theological. 


no        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

In  the  open  Bible  the  two  streams  of  gospel 
recovery  run  into  the  same  channel.  But  they 
cannot  be  said  to  blend.  The  one  is  still  popular 
in  character,  intolerant  of  scientific  difficulties,  car- 
ing only  for  immediate  practical  issues,  unfa- 
miliar with  the  tortuous  course  of  dogmatics  in 
history,  ready  to  put  up  with  a  heterogeneous  the- 
ology that  adopts  here  an  element  from  the  Bible, 
there  one  from  Origen  or  Augustine,  now  another 
from  Luther  or  Calvin,  and  then  another  from  the 
post-Reformation  systems,  with  yet  another  from 
the  loose  current  notions  of  the  day,  still  uncon- 
sciously reading  the  whole  thing  back  into  the 
Bible  and  bringing  it  forth  again  triumphantly  as 
divine  truth.  There  is  no  historical  sense,  no 
scientific  exegesis.  The  gospel  is  still  vitiated 
by  being  confused  with  its  later  theological  ex- 
pression. Hence,  while  many  evangelistic  work- 
ers preach  Christianity  with  almost  apostolic 
power,  their  theology  shocks  good  taste  and 
modern  culture.  They  think  the  fault  is  with 
the  taste  and  culture  that  have  lost  the  relish  for 
gospel  truth.  But  it  is  not  so.  Gospel  truth 
was  never  more  welcome,  and  the  effort  to  live 
it  never  stronger.  The  trouble  is  with  this  obso- 
lete culture  which  they  are  presenting  as  an  essen- 
tial part  of  the  gospel. 

The  other  movement  is  still  scientific  and 
thoughtful,  inclined  to  be  contemptuous  of  the 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  in 

popular  confidence  and  enthusiasm,  somewhat 
cold  and  lacking  in  evangelistic  fervor,  perhaps 
putting  over-emphasis  upon  what  it  is  possible  for 
knowledge  to  do  in  religion,  yet  trying  to  be  loy- 
al to  its  scientific  ideals  and  to  keep  reverent  and 
sweet-spirited  in  the  face  of  misunderstanding 
and  abuse.  It  sees  more  clearly  the  seat  of  the 
difficulty,  and  feels  more  keenly  the  injustice  of 
trying  to  force  upon  the  modern  world  the  ancient 
culture  as  a  part  of  the  religion  of  Jesus.  It 
realizes  more  fully,  and  often  more  sadly,  the 
inherent  difficulty  of  interpreting  religion  to 
thought,  but  yet  must  have  a  thoughtful  religion 
if  it  is  to  render  whole-hearted  allegiance. 

The  time  has  therefore  come  when  we  face 
the  theological  problem  of  the  New  Reformation. 
Will  this  rediscovered  gospel  be  permitted  to 
express  itself  in  a  systematic  theology  congruous 
with  our  modern  culture,  or  will  it  again,  as  after 
the  Lutheran  Reformation,  be  forced  back  into 
the  old  wine-skin  of  ancient  knowledge  ?  If  the 
latter,  there  is  no  alternative  but  for  history  to 
repeat  itself — another  period  of  ferment  by  the 
gospel  in  its  hiding  place,  followed  by  a  new 
bursting  of  its  bonds  some  time  in  the  future. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  gospel  can  now  express 
itself  in  a  new  and  fitting  dogmatic  system,  it 
will  be  free  to  enter  upon  a  permanent  conquest 
of  the  modern  world — a  conquest  of  its  intelli- 


H2        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

gence  and  determined  energy,  as  well  as  of  its 
feeling  and  impulsive  activity.  The  movement 
for  the  recovery  of  the  gospel  is  passing,  if 
indeed  it  has  not  already  passed,  into  a  move- 
ment for  its  restatement. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    RECOVERED   GOSPEL  OF  THE    NEW 
TESTAMENT. 

IT  has  been  assumed  in  the  foregoing  pages 
that  the  gospel  of  Jesus  was  originally  of  a  cer- 
tain character ;  that  it  was  a  pistis  rather  than  a 
gnosis,  and  so  had  to  do  most  properly  with 
man's  religious  nature.  In  a  former  chapter  it 
has  been  shown  what  Christianity  became  within 
three  centuries  after  the  apostolic  age.  The 
ecclesiastical  transformation  therein  described  is 
all  but  universally  admitted.  The  theological 
condition  of  things  in  the  fourth  century  is  now 
also  too  apparent  to  be  longer  disputed;  Chris- 
tianity had  become  a  gnosis.  It  remains  only  to 
ascertain  whether  it  was  such  also  in  the  begin- 
ning, or  whether  the  assumption  that  at  first  it 
was  a.  pistis  is  well  founded. 

I.      ATTITUDE    OF   MODERN    EXEGESIS  TOWARD    THE 
NEW    TESTAMENT    LITERATURE. 

By  common  consent  the  nature  of  primitive 
Christianity  is  to  be  determined  from  the  New 
Testament,  which,  whatever  else  it  may  be,  is 
conceded  by  all  parties  to  be,  at  least  in  the 
main,  the  literature  of  the  first  age  of  Christianity. 
"3 


H4        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

In  turning  now  to  the  New  Testament  to 
answer  the  question,  What  was  the  original  gos- 
pel? we  today  occupy  a  double  vantage  ground 
never  before  enjoyed.  In  the  first  place,  the 
new  study  of  church  history,  and  the  movement 
leading  to  the  recovery  of  the  Bible,  as  traced  in 
the  last  chapter,  bring  us  to  the  New  Testament 
in  a  more  intelligent  and  open-minded  spirit,  and 
equipped  with  a  better  exegetical  method,  than 
have  characterized  any  other  age. 

In  the  second  place,  due  to  the  new  historical 
perspective  in  Bible  study,  we  turn  now,  not 
primarily  to  the  epistles  of  Paul,  as  has  generally 
been  done  in  the  past,  but  to  the  New  Testament 
records  of  the  life  and  teachings  of  Jesus ;  and  then 
to  the  other  Bible  writings  as  throwing  new  light 
upon  these.  Here  we  stand  upon  practically  new 
ground,  never  before  occupied  since  the  New 
Testament  canon  was  formed.  By  the  time  that 
was  accomplished  Christianity  had  already  started 
on  its  theological  course,  and  gave  precedence  to 
those  parts  of  the  Bible  that  were  most  easily 
assimilated  to  its  uses.  Hence  the  Greek  theo- 
logians turned  to  the  writings  of  John  and  the 
philosophical  aspects  of  Paul's  writings,  while  the 
Roman  theologians  found  special  delight  in 
Paul's  legal  terminology.  At  the  time  of  the 
Lutheran  Reformation,  also,  it  is  significant  that 
the  return  was  rather  to  Paul's  writings  than  to 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  115 

the  gospel  narratives.  Luther,  instead  of  taking 
Jesus'  idea  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  as  his 
dominating  thought,  made  Paul's  "justification  by 
faith"  the  center  of  his  system.  Calvin,  instead 
of  putting  new  emphasis  upon  Jesus'  conception  of 
the  fatherhood  of  God,  adopted  as  the  center  of 
his  system  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  God,  an 
idea  traceable  back  through  Augustine  to  Paul. 
From  the  Reformation  this  same  tendency  passed 
over  into  all  the  great  Protestant  systems  of  the- 
ology. The  writings  of  Paul,  rather  than  the 
teachings  of  Jesus,  have  dominated  dogmatics 
all  the  way  of  its  course.  This  in  turn  was  justi- 
fied by  a  theory  of  inspiration  which  regarded  the 
apostles  as  the  infallible  mouthpieces  of  the  risen 
Christ,  and  so  made  their  utterances  his. 

A  clearer  understanding  of  New  Testament 
times,  and  a  more  careful  reading  of  the  New 
Testament  itself,  show  that  this  position  is  not 
tenable,  and  indeed  is  unscriptural.  It  places  the 
apostles  on  the  same  footing  as  Christ,  ascribing 
to  them  the  same  universality  of  comprehension 
and  expression.  No  one  who  has  entered  at  all 
deeply  into  the  thought  of  the  apostolic  writers 
will  deny  for  a  moment  their  divine  inspiration. 
But  they  are  not  as  Christ.  They  have  the  same 
spirit,  but  not  without  measure.  They  were  still 
human,  with  human  limitations  and  prejudices, 
Christ  spoke  as  knowing  what  was  in  man,  and  as 


n6        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

possessing  immediate  knowledge  of  the  Father's 
heart.  The  apostles,  according  to  their  own  con- 
fession, saw  through  a  glass  darkly.  Jesus 
somehow  spoke  a  universal  religious  language, 
not  only  to  his  own  age,  but  to  all  generations. 
He  did  not  argue,  nor  attempt  to  express  his 
thought  in  terms  of  traditional  Jewish  theol- 
ogy; he  lived  the  truth  in  his  own  divine  life, 
and  succeeded  as  none  other  ever  has  in  speaking 
as  soul  to  soul  with  man.  With  the  apostles  it  was 
different.  Their  mission  was  to  their  own  gen- 
eration, and  to  us  only  as  first  to  it.  It  was  their 
avowed  purpose  to  bring  the  gospel  to  bear  upon 
the  conditions  immediately  before  them.  They 
had  no  gospel  of  their  own,  but  themselves  took 
the  gospel  of  Jesus,  and  by  means  of  argument 
and  illustration,  drawn  from  current  conceptions 
and  conditions,  sought  to  press  it  upon  their  con- 
temporaries. That  is,  the  apostles  were  the  first 
theologians  and  preachers  of  the  church,  and  are 
the  inspired  examples  for  all  future  workers  in 
the  same  field.  Doing  as  they  did,  we  also  refuse 
to  stop  with  them,  but  press  back  to  the  same 
gospel  of  Jesus  to  which  they  gave  allegiance. 

For  this  reason  the  following  exposition  will 
be  confined  chiefly  to  the  gospel  narratives.  This 
much,  however,  should  be  said  :  anyone  who  really 
works  his  way  into  apostolic  thought  becomes 
more  and  more  convinced  that  the  apostles 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  117 

preached  no  new  gospel,  but  grasped  in  all  of  its 
essential  features  the  teaching  of  Him  whom  they 
served.  The  thing  to  be  remembered  is  that  their 
expression  of  this  gospel  does  not  partake  of  the 
same  universal  and  permanent  character  as  the 
gospel  itself,  for  it  was  cast  in  the  form  it  now  has 
in  order  to  meet  special  conditions.  If  this  is 
borne  in  mind,  the  expression  "the  gospel  of  the 
New  Testament"  may  be  substituted  for  "the 
gospel  of  Jesus  "  throughout  this  discussion  with- 
out change  of  meaning ;  it  being  understood  that 
no  attempt  is  here  made  to  prove  the  essential 
identity  of  the  two. 

It  is  not  necessary  in  this  place  to  enter  into 
a  critical  estimate  of  the  four  gospel  narratives. 
It  is  assumed  that  the  first  three  give  a  true  im- 
pression of  Jesus,  together  with  a  trustworthy  ac- 
count of  what  he  did  and  taught.  It  is  also  taken 
for  granted  that  the  fourth  gospel,  even  though  it 
may  color  the  thought  of  Jesus  by  the  reflection 
of  the  author,  is  still  true  to  the  spirit  and  sub- 
stance of  the  Master's  teaching.  These  assump- 
tions, to  say  the  least,  are  not  in  contradiction  to 
the  most  assured  conclusions  of  the  critical  inves- 
tigation of  the  subject. 

II.      THE  GOSPEL  OF  JESUS. 

No  pretensions  are  made  in  the  following 
pages  to  a  scientific  exposition  of  the  gospel, 
but  only  to  an  indication  of  such  of  its  charac- 


n8        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

teristic  features  as  bear  upon  the  question  of  the 
original  character  of  Christianity. 

The  fundamental  idea  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
is  that  of  salvation.  It  cannot  be  better  expressed 
than  in  the  classical  passage:  "  God  so  loved  the 
world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  on  him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  eternal  life." 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  the  mediator  of  salvation. 

Before  his  birth,  Jesus  was  given  a  name 
which  indicated  the  fact  that  he  should  save  his 
people  from  their  sins.  At  his  nativity  the  angels 
announced  the  good  tidings  that  a  Savior  was 
born.  The  aged  saints  waiting  in  the  temple 
welcomed  him  as  the  Redeemer  of  Israel.  These 
things,  however,  would  not  determine  anything, 
if  he  himself  had  not  made  salvation  his  great 
task.  This  he  did,  both  by  word  and  by  deed. 
"The  whole  need  not  a  physician,"  said  Jesus, 
"but  the  sick.  I  came  not  to  call  the  righteous, 
but  sinners,  to  repentance."  He  called  himself 
the  good  shepherd,  who  watched  over  the  sheep 
and  protected  them  with  his  life.  "  I,  if  I  be 
lifted  up,"  he  said,  "will  draw  all  men  unto  me." 
"  God  sent  not  his  Son  into  the  world  to  con- 
demn the  world,  but  that  the  world  through  him 
might  be  saved."  "  I  am  come,"  he  said  again, 
"that  they  might  have  life,  and  that  they  might 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  119 

have  it  more  abundantly."  Then  there  is  that 
great  utterance,  spoken  when  he  was  trying  to 
impress  upon  his  disciples  the  inherent  nobility 
of  service:  "The  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  his 
life  a  ransom  for  many."  And  the  solemn  words 
at  the  Last  Supper  :  "This  is  my  body  ;  this  is  my 
blood  which  is  shed  for  many." 

These  were  not  idle  words.  His  life  proved 
their  sincerity.  He  vindicated  his  claim  to  be 
the  great  Physician  by  healing  the  diseases  of 
men,  living  with  sinners,  loving  and  helping 
them,  even  until  it  became  a  great  scandal  among 
the  Pharisees.  He  identified  himself  so  fully 
with  men  in  their  sufferings  that  the  evangelist 
saw  in  his  life  the  fulfilment  of  Isaiah's  prophecy: 
"  Himself  took  our  infirmities  and  bare  our  sick- 
nesses." But  all  other  proof  of  Jesus'  claim  to 
be  the  Savior  of  men  is  overshadowed  by  the 
convincing  proof  of  the  cross.  Here  he  sealed 
his  professions  by  actual  death  in  behalf  of  man- 
kind. The  world's  sickness  and  sorrow  and  sin, 
which  he  bore  through  life,  he  bore  unto  the 
utmost  limit  in  his  death. 

While  this  central  fact  in  the  life  of  Jesus  can- 
not be  permitted  to  be  buried  under  man-made 
theories  of  the  atonement,  yet  it  is  also  true  that 
the  gospel  fact  cannot  be  limited  to  what  the  eye 
can  see.  As  Jesus  hung  upon  the  cross,  all  that 


izo        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

could  be  seen  was  a  man  dying  between  two 
other  men.  Fact  means  more  than  this.  Who 
it  was  dying,  and  how  he  came  to  be  dying,  are 
a  part  of  the  fact.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  fact 
and  theory  here  come  so  close  together  that  the 
one  easily  passes  into  the  other.  The  safest 
thing  to  do  is  to  include  in  the  permanent  gospel 
fact  of  the  person  of  Christ  what  he  himself 
included. 

Even  in  the  synoptic  gospels  Jesus  represents 
himself  as  bearing  a  unique  relation  to  God. 
God  is  pre-eminently  his  Father.  He  will  con- 
fess men  before  his  Father,  who  has  delivered 
all  things  unto  him  and  given  him  all  au- 
thority in  heaven  and  earth.  "  No  one  knoweth 
the  Son  save  the  Father,  neither  doth  any 
know  the  Father  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whom- 
soever the  Son  willeth  to  reveal  him."  The 
Father  has  committed  the  judgment  of  the  world 
unto  the  Son,  who  will  come  in  his  glory  to 
accomplish  it.  Jesus  knows  himself  to  be  the 
Christ,  the  chosen  and  anointed  agent  of  the 
Father  for  setting  up  the  kingdom  of  God  among 
men. 

When  we  turn  to  the  fourth  gospel,  this  is 
made  more  distinct.  The  consciousness  of  his 
intimate  union  with  the  Father  is  so  strong  that 
it  colors  all  his  life.  He  everywhere  refers  to 
"my  Father"  as  the  one  whose  messenger  he  is. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  121 

He  speaks  not  on  his  own  authority,  he  does  not 
his  own  works,  he  carries  not  out  his  own  will; 
but  he  is  sent  of  the  Father,  does  his  will  and 
works,  speaks  the  things  he  has  seen  and  heard 
of  him.  He  was  with  the  Father  in  his  glory 
before  he  came  to  earth,  and  goes  again  to 
be  with  him.  He  that  hath  seen  the  Son  hath 
seen  the  Father.  Indeed,  he  and  the  Father 
are  one. 

It  is  this  unique  relationship  to  the  Father 
that  giyes  character  and  value  to  the  work  of 
Jesus.  Knowing  God  by  immediate  union,  he 
could  make  him  known  as  the  Father  of  men. 
Having  personally  experienced  the  Father's  in- 
finite love,  he  could  express  it  to  the  world 
in  his  own  person.  Understanding  God's  deadly 
antagonism  to  sin,  he  could  teach  men  its  real 
nature  by  resisting  it  even  unto  death,  and 
causing  it  there  to  reveal  its  incarnate  essence. 
The  gospel  records  leave  no  doubt  of  the  fact 
that  Jesus  regarded  himself  as  the  self-revelation 
of  God.  John  gives  the  thought  in  his  prologue 
by  saying  that  he  was  the  Word  of  God  incar- 
nate— God's  expression  of  himself  in  humanity. 
Jesus  claims  to  have  for  men  the  religious  value 
of  God.  It  is  through  him  that  we  have  our 
most  treasured  knowledge  of  God  and  come  into 
communion  with  him.  This  claim  of  Jesus  is  pre- 
sented everywhere  throughout  the  New  Testa- 


122        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

ment;  and,  it  may  be  added,  is  abundantly  veri- 
fied in  human  experience.  This  relationship  to 
God  is  the  gospel  fact  concerning  the  person  of 
Jesus  that  makes  the  salvation  which  he  brings 
to  men  a  real  salvation. 

God  the  Heavenly  Father  the  Author  of  salvation. 

The  gospel  presents  a  new  idea  of  God.  He 
is  not  only  a  God  of  holiness  and  justice,  but 
also  of  boundless  love;  not  a  God  who  loves  Jews 
alone,  nor  the  good  alone,  but  whose  love  is 
all-inclusive,  as  extensive  as  humanity  itself. 
Whether  or  not  Jesus  taught  that  God  is  the 
Father  of  all  men,  he  certainly  taught  that  he 
has  a  Father's  love  and  care  for  all.  It  was  God's 
love  that  led  to  Christ's  mission  of  salvation : 
"  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  Son." 
As  Paul  puts  it :  "  God  commendeth  his  love 
toward  us,  in  that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners, 
Christ  died  for  us."  God  is  forever  working  to 
reclaim  the  lost  world  ;  his  love  streams  out  con- 
stantly as  the  warm  rays  of  the  sun.  He  showers 
blessings  upon  the  just  and  the  unjust,  that  he 
may  do  them  good.  His  thought  for  men  is  good 
and  only  good ;  if  there  is  any  failure  to  receive 
eternal  blessedness,  it  will  be  through  man's  sin, 
not  by  God's  wish.  With  Jesus  the  cross  is  thus 
the  manifestation  of  the  Father's  deathless  love, 
rather  than  the  satisfaction  of  the  justice  of  a 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  123 

wrathful  God.     This  may  not  be  Calvinism,  but 
it  is  the  message  of  Jesus  nevertheless. 

The  nature  and  conditions  of  salvation. 

This  salvation,  of  which  God  is  the  author  and 
Jesus  the  mediator,  is  presented  in  a  somewhat 
different  aspect  in  the  synoptic  gospels  from  that 
in  the  fourth  gospel ;  the  former  representing  it  as 
the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  latter  as  eternal 
life.  A  closer  examination,  however,  shows  this 
to  be  a  formal  rather  than  a  material  difference. 

I.  Salvation  as  the  kingdom  of  God.  The 
idea  of  the  kingdom  of  God  was  not  a  new  one. 
Israel  theoretically  constituted  such  a  kingdom, 
both  during  the  theocracy,  when  God  was  re- 
garded as  the  nation's  ruler,  and  during  the  mon- 
archy, when  the  king  was  God's  earthly  vice- 
gerent. The  Jews  of  later  ages  looked  back 
longingly  to  the  kingdom  of  David  as  the  ideal 
condition  to  be  reproduced  under  the  coming 
Messianic  reign.  Jesus  adopted  this  national 
hope  of  the  kingdom,  and  made  it  the  central 
thought  of  his  preaching.  He  began  with  the 
proclamation :  "  Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  at  hand."  He  went  throughout  the  cities  and 
villages  preaching  the  kingdom  of  God  during 
his  entire  ministry.  He  directed  his  disciples  to 
preach  the  same  theme.  And  during  the  forty 
days  after  his  resurrection  "  he  was  speaking  the 
things  pertaining  to  the  kingdom  of  God." 


124        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

But  while  Jesus  chose  this  national  hope  as 
the  form  into  which  he  cast  his  message,  he  filled 
it  with  new  meaning  and  wholly  changed  its  char- 
acter. It  is  not  necessary  to  discuss  here  the 
Jewish  expectations  concerning  the  kingdom. 
Their  essentially  materialistic  character  in  the 
times  of  Christ  is  well  known.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  gave  to  the  idea  a  clearly  marked  spiritual  mean- 
ing. When  the  Pharisees  came  asking  him  when 
the  kingdom  of  God  should  appear,  he  answered, 
"  The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observa- 
tion ;  neither  shall  they  say,  Lo  here!  or  lo  there! 
for  behold  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you," 
or  "  in  the  midst  of  you."  The  kingdom,  that  is, 
is  a  spiritual  kingdom,  not  coming  with  worldly 
pomp  and  force,  but  already  present  in  unseen 
spiritual  power.  It  is  the  sovereign  rule  of  God 
in  the  lives  of  men,  both  as  individuals  and  as 
related  to  each  other. 

All  those  who  enter  into  the  kingdom,  there- 
fore, must  turn  from  their  old  life  and  be  of  a  new 
spiritual  temper.  "  Repent,  and  believe  the  gos- 
pel," says  Jesus.  "  Except  ye  turn  and  become 
as  little  children,  ye  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  "  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for 
theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

As  men  enter  the  kingdom  by  the  exercise 
of  repentance  and  faith,  God  meets  them  with  the 
forgiveness  of  their  sins,  dispelling  their  fear  of 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  125 

him,  and  drawing  them  into  personal  fellowship 
with  himself.  This  salvation  into  the  kingdom 
thus  involves  a  new  life  of  communion  with  God. 
It  is  a  life  of  trust,  in  which  men  cease  to  trouble 
themselves  overmuch  with  anxiety  about  food 
and  raiment  and  the  evils  of  the  morrow,  but  strive 
to  do  their  Father's  will  first  of  all,  and  leave 
themselves  in  his  care.  The  sovereignty  in  the 
kingdom  is  a  "  paternal  sovereignty,"  in  which 
the  king  is  a  loving  Father,  looking  after  the 
best  interests  of  each  child. 

While  God  is  supreme  in  the  kingdom,  as  lov- 
ing, forgiving,  and  sustaining  Father,  he  makes 
his  will  known  through  Christ,  the  Savior,  Mas- 
ter, and  Friend,  to  whom  immediate  allegiance  is 
due.  Every  man  who  enters  is  to  deny  himself 
and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  Jesus.  This  is 
not  a  mechanical  matter.  Jesus  has  adopted  as 
his  own  the  law  of  the  kingdom,  and  fulfilled  it 
in  his  own  life,  even  unto  crucifixion.  Everyone 
who  would  enter  must  adopt  the  same  law  and 
fulfil  it  in  the  same  way.  The  law  of  the  king- 
dom is  love  —  not  love  along  with  other  laws,  but 
love  as  the  all-inclusive  principle  of  life  which 
fulfils  all  other  laws.  "  Whatsoever  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to 
them  :  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets."  And 
at  the  end  of  the  ministry  it  was  the  same  as  at 
the  beginning.  In  those  last  days  at  Jerusalem 


126        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

Jesus  answered  the  lawyer :  "  Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  great 
and  first  commandment.  And  a  second  like  unto 
it  is  this,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self. On  these  two  commandments  hangeth  the 
whole  law  and  the  prophets."  Nor  is  this  law  of 
love  to  govern  the  subject's  relations  with  his 
friends  alone.  He  is  to  love  his  enemies,  bless 
those  that  curse  him,  do  good  to  those  that  hate 
him,  and  pray  for  those  that  despitefully  use  him 
and  persecute  him.  Toward  friend  and  enemy 
alike  the  spirit  of  kindliness  is  to  rule. 

This  love,  moreover,  is  not  to  remain  an  unex- 
pressed benevolent  impulse,  but  is  to  take  form 
in  word  and  deed.  The  cup  of  cold  water  is  to 
be  given,  the  naked  clothed,  the  sick  and  unfor- 
tunate visited,  the  sorrowing  comforted.  "  Who- 
soever shall  lose  Jiis  life  for  my  sake  and  the 
gospel's,  shall  find  it."  Paul  sums  it  up  in  the 
spirit  of  the  Master  when  he  says :  "  Bear  ye 
one  another's  burdens,  and  so  fulfil  the  law  of 
Christ." 

Salvation  in  the  kingdom  necessitates  the 
overcoming  of  sin  and  the  living  of  lives  of  purity 
and  holiness.  The  law  of  love  necessarily  must 
overcome  the  law  of  selfishness,  which  Jesus 
everywhere  presents  as  the  essence  of  sin.  The 
greatest  sin  is  lack  of  love.  Hence  as  men  come 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  127 

more  and  more  under  the  dominion  of  the  law  of 
the  kingdom  they  must  grow  in  holiness.  "  Be  ye 
perfect  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect,"  is 
the  divine  ideal  ever  leading  the  king's  subjects 
on  to  holier  living.  Sin  has  no  place  in  the  king- 
dom. If  it  enters  it  is  an  element  of  discord  and 
must  be  thrust  out.  Nor  is  holiness  mere  passive 
or  negative  goodness,  but  active  and  energetic 
righteousness.  This  is  one  of  the  remarkable 
things  about  Jesus'  idea  of  goodness.  It  is  the 
very  opposite  of  stoicism  and  asceticism.  It  in- 
vites men  to  enter  into  life's  activities  and  con- 
quer evil  by  overcoming  it  with  good.  Sin  is 
not  the  doing  of  evil  so  much  as  the  failure  to 
do  the  good.  Virtue  is  not  the  absence  of  the 
wrong  so  much  as  the  existence  and  activity  of 
positive  goodness.  In  the  kingdom  of  God  sin 
is  to  give  place  to  this  kind  of  holiness. 

The  new  life  in  the  kingdom  of  God  begins 
here  in  this  world;  that  is,  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  a  present  kingdom.  It  already  "is  among 
you."  In  the  days  of  Jesus  the  kingdom  was  es- 
tablished in  the  world,  when  through  him  God 
began  to  exercise  his  sovereign  rule  over  in- 
dividual hearts.  But  this  was  not  all  of  the 
kingdom.  It  was  to  extend  its  sway  both  indi- 
vidually and  socially.  Like  the  leaven,  the  new 
law  of  the  kingdom  was  to  permeate  more  and 
more  the  life  of  the  individual  who  had  felt  its 


128        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

power,  until  he  came  completely  under  its  con- 
trol, and  sin  gave  place  to  holiness  as  selfish- 
ness gave  way  before  the  new  divine  altruism. 
This  may  not  be  fully  accomplished  in  the  earth- 
ly life ;  indeed,  it  probably  will  not  be.  And  so 
there  is  in  store  for  the  individual  subject  of  the 
kingdom  a  glorious  consummation  in  the  future, 
wherein  his  longings  and  strivings  shall  be  real- 
ized. Some  time,  somewhere,  they  that  hunger 
and  thirst  after  righteousness  shall  be  filled. 

But  the  thought  of  Jesus  seems  also  to  antici- 
pate the  leavening  extension  of  the  kingdom's 
law  into  the  social  life  of  the  world.  Beginning 
with  individual  subjects,  and  always  preserving 
the  individual  dignity  and  the  individual  relation- 
ship between  Son  and  Father,  the  kingdom  also 
includes  the  relation  of  individuals  to  each  other, 
and  the  penetration  of  the  divine  sovereignty  into 
their  collective  life.  It  therefore  involves  a  new 
society,  whose  laws  are  fair  deductions  of  the 
great  law  of  the  kingdom,  and  whose  institutions 
are  just  expressions  of  its  spirit.  Jesus  did  not 
say  much  about  how  this  should  be  accomplished. 
There  are  the  two  parables  of  the  leaven  and  the 
mustard  seed  which  directly  teach  it.  But  more 
than  that,  it  seems  to  be  involved  in  all  his  teach- 
ing concerning  the  relation  of  the  subjects  of  the 
kingdom  to  God  and  to  each  other.  Supreme 
love  to  God,  and  a  love  to  others  equal  to  love 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  129 

for  self,  necessarily  must  in  time  find  expression 
in  congenial  social  institutions.  It  can  hardly  be 
doubted  that  Jesus  looked  forward  to  the  course 
of  history  as  the  scene  of  this  conflict  between 
the  old  world-kingdom  and  the  new  divine  king- 
dom which  he  had  established  ;  a  conflict  in  which 
his  kingdom  should  be  progressively  victorious 
until  its  final  glorious  consummation,  represented 
by  his  return  in  the  glory  of  the  Father  to  an  un- 
disputed reign. 

2.  Salvation  as  eternal  life.  Turning  from  the 
synoptics  to  the  fourth  gospel,  we  do  not  find 
a  different  message,  but  an  entirely  new  form 
of  expression.  Whether  this  is  due  to  John's 
own  reflection  and  personal  coloring,  or  whether 
Jesus  used  both  forms,  the  synoptists  mainly 
following  one  and  John  the  other,  is  a  matter 
of  conjecture.  However  that  may  be,  it  is  sur- 
prising how  impossible  one  finds  it  to  express 
the  teachings  of  John's  gospel  under  the  catego- 
ries derived  from  an  analysis  of  the  first  three 
gospels.  A  wholly  different  terminology  has  to 
be  used.  But  it  is  even  more  surprising  how 
little  real  change  is  found  in  the  gospel  mes- 
sage presented  in  these  two  forms.  The  shell 
seems  to  fall  away  in  both  cases  and  leave  the 
same  kernel  of  divine  truth  manifest  in  clearest 
light. 

The  gospel  of  salvation  which  the  synoptists 


130        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

present  under  the  form  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
John  presents  as  eternal  life. 

That  which  the  synoptists  hint  at  is  here  clear- 
ly expressed  —  that  man  must  undergo  a  spiritual 
birth  and  emerge  into  spiritual  life  if  he  would 
see  God.  God  is  spirit,  and  they  that  worship 
him  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 
This  spiritual  birth  is  conditioned  by  the  same 
requirements  that  the  synoptists  give  for  entrance 
into  the  kingdom,  and  this  is  doubtless  one  cause 
of  the  similarity  of  thought  between  the  two. 
These  conditions  are  repentance  (a  turning  from 
sin)  and  faith  in  Christ  (loving  confidence  and 
trust  in  him,  together  with  the  will  to  obey  him). 
Upon  the  fulfilment  of  these  conditions  the 
Father  forgives  men  their  sins,  gives  them  power 
to  become  sons  of  God,  and  grants  to  them  eter- 
nal life. 

Here  is  brought  out  more  clearly,  also,  what 
it  is  that  man  is  saved  from  :  sin  and  death  and 
the  wrath  of  God.  This  does  not  need  to  be  en- 
larged upon,  as  the  same  teaching  is  found  in  the 
synoptists.  But  naturally  an  emphasis  of  the  gos- 
pel as  life  and  light  brings  out  more  clearly  the 
shadows  of  death. 

We  likewise  see  with  greater  distinctness  what 
it  is  that  man  is  saved  unto :  a  life  of  light  and  of 
blessed  union  and  fellowship  with  God.  "  I  will 
not  leave  you  comfortless,"  says  Jesus,  "I  will 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  131 

come  to  you."  "If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep 
my  words  :  and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  we 
will  come  unto  him,  and  make  our  abode  with 
him."  "Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you."  "He  that 
followeth  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall 
have  the  light  of  life."  Life  and  light  are  the 
great  gifts  of  God  to  those  who  fulfil  the  condi- 
tions of  their  bestowal  through  Jesus  Christ. 

This  new  divine  life  must  be  sustained  by 
continued  loyal  fellowship  with  Christ,  who  is 
the  bread  of  life ;  a  communion  whose  continuance 
is  rendered  possible  after  his  departure  by  his 
return  in  the  Spirit  to  dwell  within  his  people  as 
comforter,  strengthener,  and  guide. 

A  man  thus  born  of  the  Spirit,  and  living 
in  the  Spirit,  has  eternal  life.  He  has  it  now : 
"  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  eternal  life." 
There  is  not  so  much  said  about  the  present  and 
future  in  John's  gospel.  They  seem  to  disappear 
as  Christ  leads  us  out  into  the  eternal  verities 
where  time  is  not.  The  man  who  through  faith 
in  Christ  is  brought  into  a  permanent  relation  to 
God  in  the  realm  of  spiritual  life  comes  into  an 
environment  where  the  conditions  of  eternal  life 
are  already  present.  He  is  in  vital  touch  with  those 
mighty  spiritual  forces  which  are  as  strong  and 
enduring  as  God  himself.  He  is  taken  up  by  God 
into  his  own  life,  without  losing  his  own  individu- 
ality ;  rather  he  there  first  finds  it  completely. 


132         RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

John  does  not  show,  as  the  synoptists  do,  how 
this  life  is  to  come  into  organic  relations  with 
the  world,  and  constitute  a  kingdom,  but  deals 
with  it  in  its  inner,  spiritual,  eternal  conditions. 
The  atmosphere  is  more  distinctively  religious  as 
contrasted  with  moral.  He  gives  the  spirit  and 
essence  of  religion  as  taught  by  Christ,  without 
attempting  to  give  it  a  local  habitation  and  a 
name.  But  it  is  the  same  gospel  of  salvation, 
here  brought  out  with  startling  clearness  and 
beauty. 

III.       CONCLUSIONS. 

It  now  remains  to  consider  the  bearing  of  this 
New  Testament  idea  of  Christianity  upon  the 
question  of  the  obscuration  of  the  gospel,  with 
which  we  have  been  concerned.  Was  the  later 
dogmatic  development  the  legitimate  unfolding 
of  this  gospel,  or  a  transformation  of  it? 

I.  The  New  Testament  narratives  set  forth 
the  gospel  under  the  two  aspects  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  and  eternal  life.  From  this  fact  several 
things  are  obvious.  In  the  first  place,  the  gospel 
message  is  thus  better  understood.  Language  is 
a  means  to  an  end.  The  end  sought  is  the  con- 
veyance of  truth.  But  language  is  an  inadequate 
means  of  communication,  and  hence  a  truth 
presented  in  only  one  form  is  subject  to  more 
misconception  than  when  expressed  in  several 
ways.  Without  question  the  dual  form  in  which 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  133 

the  gospel  has  come  down  to  us  makes  its  mean- 
ing clearer. 

Again,  it  is  evident  even  here  that  the  gospel 
is  not  to  be  identified  with,  or  confined  to,  any 
one  form  of  expression.  It  would  seem  as  if  in 
the  very  beginning  Jesus  sought  to  guard  against 
that  error.  And  if  the  gospel  cannot  be  identi- 
fied with  any  one  form  of  expression  even  as 
taught  by  Christ,  much  less  should  we  feel  bound 
by  the  more  local  form  in  which  Paul  set  it  forth; 
and  still  less  by  the  expression  given  to  it  by  theo- 
logians and  councils  who  formulated  their  state- 
ments in  the  midst  of  passionate  controversy,  in 
times  remote  from  Bible  days,  surrounded  by 
an  alien  culture,  and  often  with  no  clear  concep- 
tion of  the  essential  gospel  message. 

But  of  still  greater  importance  than  either  of 
these  is  the  further  consideration  that  the  termi- 
nology which  Jesus  used  is  best  adapted  to 
express  the  real  nature  of  the  gospel  clearly  and 
universally.  The  two  forms  of  expression  that 
he  adopted  are  marked  by  especial  richness,  and 
bring  the  gospel  into  touch  with  all  life.  It  is 
significant  that  he  did  not  use  the  philosophical 
language  of  formal  thought,  nor  the  legal  termi- 
nology of  his  day,  nor  the  speech  of  contempo- 
rary literary  and  scientific  culture,  but  the  two 
categories  of  life  and  a  paternal  kingdom. 

The  terms  of  life  are  as  universal  as  the  human 


134        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

race,  and  are  full  of  the  wealth  of  meaning  that 
pertains  to  life  in  all  of  its  manifoldness.  Perhaps 
we  might  say  that  Christianity  is  life — the  only 
true  life.  Even  under  the  guise  of  the  kingdom 
of  God,  the  gospel  appears  as  life  in  the  kingdom. 
The  adoption  of  this  terminology  for  the  procla- 
mation of  the  gospel,  therefore,  brings  to  light 
its  inner  nature  as  a  vital  union  of  the  spiritual 
man  with  the  universal  Spirit,  and  makes  this 
conception  everywhere  intelligible. 

But  this  is  not  all  of  the  gospel.  Religion,  at 
least  the  Christian  religion,  is  not  adequately 
defined  by  calling  it  the  life  of  the  soul  in  com- 
munion with  God.  It  has  earthly  relationships 
and  everyday  duties.  In  expressing  these  also 
Jesus  chose  a  terminology  at  once  universal 
and  fitted  to  manifest  clearly  their  character. 
He  took  the  mingled  concepts  of  the  family 
and  the  kingdom.  Everywhere  there  is  some 
sort  of  community  life  under  one  or  both  of 
these  aspects ;  and  this  renders  universally 
intelligible  the  social  teachings  of  the  gospel  as 
set  forth  by  Jesus. 

Thus  wherever  the  gospel  goes  the  concep- 
tions are  already  prepared  for  teaching  it  in  its 
original  form  of  statement — and  for  teaching  it  in 
the  most  practical  way,  by  bringing  it  into  imme- 
diate touch  with  those  phases  of  life  which  it  must 
most  influence  if  it  remains  true  to  its  mission. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  135 

2.  But  back  of  terminology,  the  foregoing 
exposition  settles  the  more  important  .question 
of  the  true  nature  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus,  and 
makes  it  certain  that  this  is  not  chiefly  a  matter 
of  knowledge.  The  conclusions  reached  in  chap, 
ii,  based  upon  the  assumption  that  the  original 
gospel  was  a  religious  message,  are  now  proved 
to  be  true  by  an  examination  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment itself.  In  this  new  light  they  may  well  be 
reviewed  and  reinforced  here. 

That  the  New  Testament  gospel  was  pri- 
marily a  religious  message  will  be  apparent 
from  a  consideration  of  the  two  conditions  of 
salvation  on  the  human  side — repentance  and 
faith. 

It  is  here  evident,  without  question,  that  Chris- 
tianity is  not  divorced  from  knowledge.  Repent- 
ance is  primarily  a  change  of  mind.  There  is 
a  new  way  of  thinking.  Faith,  likewise,  is  based 
upon  an  intellectual  conviction  that  Jesus  is  what 
he  claims  to  be,  and  that  what  he  says  is  trust- 
worthy. But  this  is  not  all  there  is  to  repentance 
and  faith,  nor  the  chief  part.  The  change  of  mind 
in  repentance  is  a  change  respecting  moral  issues 
—a  changed  attitude  toward  God,  a  forsaking  of 
sin,  a  new  ideal  of  living.  It  necessarily  involves, 
therefore,  an  incidental  change  of  feeling  and  a 
fundamental  change  of  will.  To  repent, in  the  New 
Testament  sense,  is  to  turn  one's  whole  nature,  in- 


136        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

tellectual,  emotional,  and  volitional,  away  from  sin, 
toward  righteousness  and  God.  So  also  faith  is 
chiefly  a  religious  rather  than  an  intellectual  act. 
While  the  mind  must  be  sufficiently  satisfied  to 
give  it  confidence,  yet  there  remains  a  distinc- 
tively religious  act  of  trust  upon  the  basis  of 
this  confidence,  and  a  moral  act  of  obedience 
upon  the  basis  of  the  confidence  and  trust ;  the 
whole  colored  by  a  feeling  of  joy  at  a  course  of 
life  in  line  with  the  dictates  of  conscience.  All 
of  this  is  involved  in  New  Testament  faith.  It  is 
therefore  an  act  of  the  entire  religious  nature — 
a  resting  in  confident  trust  upon  God  as  revealed 
by  Jesus  Christ,  and  a  joyful  willingness  to  do  his 
will. 

The  object  of  faith,  moreover,  is  also  reli- 
gious in  character,  being  either  Christ  or  God  or 
the  gospel.  Faith  is  sometimes  directed  toward 
one  of  these,  and  sometimes  toward  another. 
Eventually  it  includes  them  all.  But  Christian 
faith  has  to  do  with  these  things  as  Christ  rep- 
resents them,  and  that  is  invariably  as  religious 
objects.  God,  according  to  Jesus,  is  not  so  much 
a  metaphysical  being,  to  be  intellectually  be- 
lieved in,  as  he  is  the  heavenly  Father  who  cares 
for  his  children  and  would  save  them  from  the 
blight  and  curse  of  sin,  and  who  is  therefore 
to  be  trusted  and  loved.  Jesus  presents  him- 
self as  the  object  of  faith,  not  in  the  character 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  137 

of  a  metaphysical  Christology,  founded  upon  the 
Greek  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  but  as  a  personal 
sympathizing  human  and  divine  Savior,  clothed 
with  the  authority  and  saving  power  of  God.  We 
are  saved  by  faith  in  Christ,  not  by  belief  in 
Christology.  The  other  object  of  faith,  the  gos- 
pel, Jesus  always  represents  as  a  message  of  sal- 
vation, not  as  a  theory  of  salvation  elaborated 
into  a  theological  creed.  The  gospel  message 
is,  in  a  sentence,  that  God  still  loves  men,  and 
is  both  willing  and  able  to  forgive  their  sins 
and  save  them  from  sin,  as  soon  as  they  make 
it  possible  for  him  to  do  so  by  repenting  and 
returning  to  him  through  his  Son  Jesus  Christ, 
whom  he  has  sent  into  the  world  as  his  anointed 
representative.  This  is  a  religious  message. 
It  does  not  depend  for  its  value  upon  being 
expressed  in  an  intellectual  creed  which  shall 
give  a  true  explanation  of  how  salvation  is  ac- 
complished. It  lies  back  of  all  theories,  in  the 
very  nature  of  God  and  man  and  sin,  and  has 
been  wrought  into  the  historical  life  of  the  world 
by  the  earthly  work  of  Jesus.  Man's  theory 
about  it  may  legitimately  be  presented  in  a 
theology ;  but  that  theology  is  not  the  gospel 
message  itself,  and  hence  not  the  object  of  faith. 
This  religious  and  moral  character  of  the  object 
of  faith  reacts,  in  turn,  upon  the  act  of  faith, 
making  even  the  intellectual  element  therein  con- 


138        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

tained  belong  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  conscience, 
rather  than  of  the  speculative  reason. 

Both  the  nature  of  repentance  and  the  nature 
and  objects  of  faith,  therefore,  make  it  evident 
that  the  gospel  is  addressed  primarily  to  man's 
religious  and  moral  nature,  and  so  belongs  most 
distinctively  to  the  realm  of  the  conscience,  the 
feeling,  and  the  will. 

This  fact  is  still  further  established  by  other 
teachings  of  Jesus. 

In  John  7:17  Jesus  says:  "If  any  man 
willeth  to  do  his  [God's]  will,  he  shall  know  of 
the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God  or  whether  I 
speak  from  myself."  In  John  8  :  31,  32,  he  says  : 
"If  ye  abide  in  my  word,  then  are  ye  truly  my 
disciples ;  and  ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the 
truth  shall  make  you  free."  In  both  of  these 
passages  the  truth  of  the  gospel  is  declared  to 
be  that  which  is  known  by  obedience.  Now, 
what  kind  of  truth  can  be  so  known :  scientific 
truth,  such  as  a  knowledge  of  whether  the  sun 
revolves  around  the  earth,  or  of  how  many  ages 
the  earth  required  to  reach  its  present  geological 
condition ;  philosophical  truth,  such  as  will 
satisfy  one  with  reference  to  the  validity  of  the 
doctrine  of  evolution  ;  historical  truth,  that 
will  establish  the  facts  concerning  the  Mosaic 
authorship  of  the  Pentateuch  ;  theological 
truth,  that  will  settle  the  questions  of  the  Trini- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  139 

ty,  the  infallibility  of  Scripture,  and  the  doc- 
trine of  the  atonement  ?  Everyone  knows  that 
Jesus  had  in  mind  no  such  questions  of  scientific 
and  speculative  import.  Truth  does  not  belong 
exclusively  to  the  intellectual  realm.  The  high- 
est truth  does  not  belong  there.  Without  ques- 
tion Jesus  refers  to  what  we  may  call  life-truth, 
or  religious  truth — truth  that  clarifies  the  con- 
science, quickens  the  sympathies,  directs  and 
strengthens  the  will ;  the  kind  of  truth  that  has 
to  do  with  the  consciousness  of  sin,  repentance  of 
sin,  trust  in  God,  and  freedom  from  sin.  Indeed, 
that  is  what  he  goes  on  to  say :  "The  truth  shall 
make  you  free ; "  it  being  plain  from  the  suc- 
ceeding discussion  that  he  means  free  from  sin. 

This  kind  of  truth  cannot  be  known  by  a 
purely  intellectual  act,  but  can  be  appropriated 
only  by  the  whole  rational,  religious,  and  moral 
nature  of  man.  No  intellectual  acceptance  of  a 
body  of  knowledge  can  make  a  man  free  from 
sin ;  but  only  the  activity  of  the  will,  whereby 
he  works  himself  progressively  free  from  sin  in 
a  life  of  obedience  to  moral  truth,  which,  in  turn, 
he  progressively  apprehends  by  loving  loyalty 
to  Christ,  through  whom,  again,  God  enters  into 
his  life  to  help. 

Christ  everywhere  emphasizes  this.  "Not 
everyone  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  but  he  that 


140        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 
"Whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  my  Father  which 
is  in  heaven,  he  is  my  brother,  and  sister,  and 
mother."  In  ending  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
Jesus  says :  "  He  that  heareth  these  sayings  of 
mine  and  doeth  them  "  shall  be  secure.  Again 
he  says :  "  If  ye  know  these  things,  happy  are  ye 
if  ye  do  them."  In  the  judgment  scene  recorded 
in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew,  Christ 
pronounces  sentence  on  the  ground  of  what 
is  done  and  left  undone.  This  has  always  been 
a  great  grief  to  theology,  which  pronounces 
judgment  on  the  basis  of  what  is  believed  or 
disbelieved.  But  theology  here  has  unquestion- 
ably departed  from  Christ.  However  we  may 
try  to  get  around  it,  and  make  salvation  a  matter 
of  intellectual  belief,  Jesus  universally  presents 
it  as  due  to  an  activity  of  the  will  toward  God 
and  the  right,  which  God  responds  to  with  the 
power  that  guarantees  success.  There  is  no  real 
salvation  except  a  practical  moral  and  religious 
freedom  from  sin,  won  through  the  truth,  in  the 
sphere  of  actual  life.  This,  of  course,  does  not 
deny  God's  co-operation  and  Christ's  atonement, 
but  rather  is  based  upon  these.  Nor  does  it  deny 
the  saving  efficacy  of  faith;  but  proves  that  faith 
and  belief,  in  the  sense  in  which  the  latter  has 
come  to  be  used,  are  not  synonymous.  Paul 
sums  up  the  whole  matter  in  the  spirit  of  the 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  141 

Master  when  he  says:  "Work  out  your  own  sal- 
vation with  fear  and  trembling ;  for  it  is  God  that 
worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  work,  for  his 
good  pleasure." 

In  another  place  Jesus  declares  himself  to  be 
the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life.  No  man  com- 
eth  unto  the  Father  but  by  him.  The  kind 
of  truth  that  could  be  incarnated  in  Jesus  is  the 
distinctive  truth  of  the  gospel.  Instances  might 
be  multiplied,  but  it  is  unnecessary.  From  what 
has  already  been  said  it  is  sufficiently  evident 
that  Jesus  regarded  his  gospel  as  primarily  a 
religious  message,  rather  than  as  a  new  body  of 
intellectual  knowledge. 

If  we  turn  now  from  the  words  of  Jesus  to 
the  apostolic  writings,  we  find  the  same  teach- 
ing concerning  this  matter. 

Paul  writes  to  the  church  at  Corinth:  "And 
I,  brethren,  when  I  came  unto  you,  came  not 
with  excellency  of  speech  or  of  wisdom,  pro- 
claiming unto  you  the  testimony  of  God.  For 
I  determined  not  to  know  anything  among 
you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified.  And 
I  was  with  you  in  weakness,  and  in  fear,  and 
in  much  trembling.  And  my  speech  and  my 
preaching  were  not  in  persuasive  words  of 
wisdom,  but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and 
of  power :  that  your  faith  should  not  stand  in 
the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power  of  God." 


142        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

"Which  things  also  we  speak,  not  in  words 
which  man's  wisdom  teacheth,  but  which  the 
Spirit  teacheth :  comparing  spiritual  things  with 
spiritual."  "  The  word  of  the  cross  is  to  them 
that  are  perishing  foolishness ;  but  unto  us 
who  are  being  saved  it  is  the  power  of  God." 
"Where  is  the  wise  ?  where  is  the  disputer  of 
this  world?  hath  not  God  made  foolish  the 
wisdom  of  the  world  ?  For  seeing  that  in  the 
wisdom  of  God  the  world  through  its  wisdom 
knew  not  God,  it  was  God's  good  pleasure 
through  the  foolishness  of  the  preaching  [Greek, 
'the  thing  preached']  to  save  them  that  be- 
lieve. Greeks  seek  after  wisdom  :  but  we  preach 
Christ  crucified,  unto  gentiles  foolishness,  but 
unto  them  that  are  called,  Christ  the  power  of 
God  and  the  wisdom  of  God."  "Christ  sent  me, 
to  preach  the  gospel :  not  in  wisdom  of  words, 
lest  the  cross  of  Christ  should  be  made  void." 

Again,  writing  to  Timothy,  after  warning  him 
to  avoid  profitless  discussions,  Paul  says:  "The 
firm  foundation  of  God  standeth,  having  this  seal, 
The  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  his  :  and,  Let 
everyone  that  nameth  the  name  of  the  Lord 
depart  from  unrighteousness."  And  in  writing 
to  Titus  he  gives  explicitly  the  things  that  he 
regards  as  befitting  sound  doctrine :  That  the 
aged  men  be  sober,  grave,  temperate,  sound  in 
faith,  in  love,  in  patience.  He  goes  on  to  give 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  143 

other  similar  directions,  ending  with  the  ex- 
hortation to  look  for  the  blessed  hope  of  the 
appearing  of  Christ  who  gave  himself  for  us  that 
he  might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity  and  purify 
us  unto  himself.  These  are  the  things  that  Titus 
is  to  teach  and  exhort.  The  conception  of  what 
constitutes  gospel  truth  is  evident.  In  his  won- 
derful eulogy  of  love  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of 
First  Corinthians,  Paul  says :  "  Love  never  fail- 
eth  :  whether  there  be  knowledge,  it  shall  vanish 
away;  for  we  know  in  part.  Now  abideth  faith, 
hope,  love."  He  surely  did  not  regard  the  essence 
of  the  gospel  as  consisting  in  that  which  he 
declared  to  be  partial  and  transitory.  It  was  to 
be  sought  rather  in  the  permanent  qualities  of 
religious  truth. 

From  these  passages,  and  many  others,  it  is 
clear  that  Paul,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  began 
the  dogmatic  process  by  explaining  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  to  the  existing  thought  of  his  day,  did 
not  regard  the  gospel  as  being  a  theological  body 
of  knowledge,  but  as  a  salvation  from  sin,  or  a 
new  way  of  righteousuess,  through  the  power  of 
God,  appropriated  by  the  faith  of  man.  Not 
knowledge,  but  faith,  saves  a  man.  And  with 
Paul,  as  with  Christ,  faith  is  a  matter  of  the  whole 
moral  and  religious  nature,  including  confidence 
and  trust  in  Christ,  love  for  him,  and  the  practi- 
cal activity  of  the  will  in  loyalty  to  him. 


144        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

In  the  other  New  Testament  writers  we  find 
some  very  instructive  passages  in  corroboration 
of  this  position. 

John  gives  two  remarkable  definitions  of  God. 
Recall  for  a  moment  the  Nicene  idea  of  God, 
with  its  metaphysical  subject-matter  and  philo- 
sophical terminology.  Recall  the  history  of  the 
doctrine  of  God  down  through  the  centuries,  with 
its  wearisome  speculative  discussions  of  a  meta- 
physical essence.  Then  turn  back  to  John  and 
read  his  two  great  declarations:  "God  is  light;" 
"God  is  love."  We  come  into  an  entirely  differ- 
ent atmosphere.  While  not  needing  to  deny 
that  there  is  a  metaphysical  truth  about  God,  we 
realize  that  the  highest  and  most  important  truth 
concerning  him  is  of  a  religious  kind.  Light  and 
love  cannot  be  known  by  intellectual  processes ; 
only  the  theory  of  them  can  be  so  understood. 
But  that  is  comparatively  a  small  matter.  The 
man  who  is  truly  orthodox  in  his  treatment  of  light 
and  love  is  not  he  who  accepts  a  given  scientific 
theory  concerning  them,  but  he  who  takes  a  right 
attitude  toward  them  in  his  living,  and  uses  them 
as  he  ought.  No  more  can  the  Christian  God  be 
known  through  intellectual  processes.  "Blessed 
are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God."  Here 
also  the  truly  orthodox  man  is  not  the  one  who 
subscribes  to  a  given  theological  theory  of  God, 
but  the  one  who  takes  a  right  attitude  toward 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  145 

him,  and  lives  as  he  ought  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  there  is  such  a  God.  The  church  has  no 
right  to  make  orthodoxy  depend  upon  a  given 
intellectual  theory  of  God,  such,  for  instance,  as 
the  Nicene  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  however  true 
it  may  be.  According  to  the  New  Testament,  God 
is  pre-eminently  an  ethical  being;  orthodoxy  is 
primarily  a  matter  of  right  relationships  with 
him. 

In  another  place  John  says:  "This  is  the  vic- 
tory that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith" — 
not  knowledge,  but  faith.  One  knowledge  might 
succeed  another  forever  and  the  world  remain  un- 
conquered,  because  knowledge  does  not  possess 
overcoming  power.  Such  power  pertains  only 
to  faith.  In  similar  spirit,  Jude  exhorts  "to  con- 
tend earnestly  for  the  faith  which  was  once  for 
all  delivered  unto  the  saints."  And  even  if 
the  expression  "the  faith"  is  here  used  to  desig- 
nate the  whole  body  of  apostolic  teaching,  it 
still  is  distinctively  a  faith  and  not  a  system  of 
theological  knowledge.  It  was  not  called  "the 
faith"  in  apostolic  times  without  good  reason.  The 
meaning  is  plain  from  the  first  part  of  the  verse : 
"While  I  was  giving  all  diligence  to  write  unto 
you  of  our  common  salvation,  I  was  constrained 
to  write  unto  you  exhorting  you  to  contend  ear- 
nestly for  the  faith  which  was  once  for  all  delivered 
unto  the  saints."  Jude  is  talking  about  the  kind 


146        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

of  faith  that  has  to  do  with  the  "common  salva- 
tion." The  latter  part  of  this  passage  is  often 
quoted  in  defense  of  a  theological  system  that 
came  into  existence  centuries  afterward.  Rightly 
used,  it  condemns  the  pretensions  of  that  theology 
to  be  a  necessary  part  of  the  gospel,  both  because 
the  system  is  a  knowledge  rather  than  a  faith, 
and  because  it  was  not  once  for  all  delivered  unto 
the  saints  by  Christ,  but  was  worked  out  by  a 
later  set  of  saints  on  their  own  responsibility.  It 
is  the  New  Testament  faith  that  is  to  be  con- 
tended for — the  faith  upon  which  depends  "our 
common  salvation." 

The  whole  New  Testament,  therefore,  is  in  per- 
fect agreement  that  the  gospel  is  not  a  new  body 
of  knowledge  constituting  a  revealed  philosophy. 
There  is  without  doubt  theological  material  within 
the  New  Testament  itself,  and  likewise  theological 
speculation.  But  there  is  not  nearly  so  much 
"theology,"  nor  is  it  so  "systematic"  as  has 
often  been  assumed ;  most  of  it  has  been  read 
back  into  the  book  from  later  days;  and  what 
little  theological  speculation  there  is,  is  marked 
by  a  different  spirit  and  aim  from  that  of  later 
times — it  is  always  made  subservient  to  practical 
religion.  In  the  main,  the  New  Testament  con- 
tents itself  with  presenting  the  Christian  facts, 
and  ethical  deductions  from  those  facts.  This  is 
what  it  means  by  "  doctrine ;  "  that  is,  "  teaching." 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  147 

It  makes  little  or  no  attempt  to  explain  the 
Christian  facts  by  a  coherent  theory,  as  is  done 
by  theology,  properly  so  called.  It  is  everywhere 
a  book  of  religion,  and  consistently  presents  the 
gospel  throughout  as  a  new  religious  and  moral 
salvation. 

Now  the  later  dogmatic  development  trans- 
ferred the  gospel  from  this  religious  domain  of 
the  conscience  and  the  will  to  the  realm  of  the 
speculative  reason ;  or,  to  say  the  very  least  that 
can  be  said,  it  came  so  near  doing  this  that  it 
changed  the  former  proportion,  vastly  overem- 
phasized the  speculative  intellectual  aspects  of 
truth  at  the  cost  of  those  having  to  do  with  the 
conscience  and  the  will,  and  thereby  fundamen- 
tally obscured  the  essential  nature  of  the  gospel 
and  changed  the  whole  course  of  its  history  in 
the  world. 

The  claim  that  this  development  is  neces- 
sary for  the  completeness  of  Christianity,  or 
even  that  it  is  the  legitimate  continuation  of 
the  gospel,  is  entirely  without  foundation,  and 
is  contrary  to  reason.  The  gospel  was  com- 
plete as  it  left  the  lips  of  its  divine  Founder.  It 
is  a  strange  conception  of  Jesus  that  holds 
otherwise.  He  knew  what  his  message  was,  and 
he  preached  it,  and  preached  all  of  it.  The  later 
theological  process,  instead  of  being  the  logical 
and  necessary  continuation  of  that  gospel,  was  a 


148         RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

distinct  change  from  the  language  of  life  used  by 
Jesus  to  the  language  of  formal  philosophical 
thought  which  he  avoided  as  being  inadequate 
for  his  purposes.  The  expression  of  the  gospel 
in  this  language  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  so  com- 
plete and  satisfactory  as  was  its  presentation  in 
the  rich  and  universal  language  of  life  that  Jesus 
chose.  The  terms  of  thought  change  with  men's 
changing  apprehension  of  truth  ;  the  terms  of  life 
remain  essentially  the  same  from  age  to  age. 
Thought  is  only  a  part  of  man ;  life  includes  all 
of  his  interests — it  takes  in  his  thinking  and  feel- 
ing and  willing,  and  everything  connected 
with  his  entire  being  and  activity.  How  instinct 
with  life  is  the  gospel  as  Jesus  preached  it!  There 
are  the  birds  of  the  air  and  the  growing  lilies ;  the 
ever-living  springs  and  the  waving  grain ;  the 
faithful  shepherd  careful  for  his  flock,  and  the  hus- 
bandman solicitous  for  his  crops ;  the  wayward 
son,  and  the  grief-stricken  father ;  the  awakening 
conscience  and  the  developing  will ;  deadliest 
hate  and  tenderest  love.  Jesus'  gospel  pulsates 
with  life  and  life's  manifold  interests. 

To  turn  from  this  and  identify  the  gospel 
with  thought,  or  even  to  express  it  exclusively  or 
chiefly  in  terms  of  thought,  is  fatally  to  restrict 
it  and  remove  it  from  its  most  legitimate  and 
influential  realm  of  operation.  While  not  di- 
vorced from  speculative  truth  in  its  proper  place 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  149 

and  proportion,  the  gospel  nevertheless  is  chiefly 
concerned  with  that  religious  truth  which  has  to 
do  with  the  mighty  forces  of  right  and  wrong 
that  govern  the  destiny  of  the  world,  and  upon  a 
man's  practical  attitude  toward  which  his  own 
destiny  depends. 

Thus  the  answer  to  the  question,  What  is  the 
original  gospel  in  its  essential  nature  ?  is  clear  and 
emphatic.  The  gospel  is  not  confined  within  an 
earthly  institution  guarded  by  a  privileged  priest- 
hood, upon  which  men  are  dependent  for  salva- 
tion, nor  is  it  a  theological  body  of  knowledge, 
to  be  intellectually  subscribed  to.  To  be  a  Chris- 
tian does  not  mean,  nor  involve,  the  acceptance 
of  the  extra-biblical  dogmatics  of  the  church, 
with  its  included  elements  of  an  obsolete  culture. 
The  gospel  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation, 
mediated  by  Jesus  Christ ;  a  salvation  addressed 
to  man's  whole  nature,  and  claiming  jurisdiction 
over  his  entire  life.  To  be  a  Christian  is  for  a  man 
so  to  turn  from  sin  and  surrender  himself  to  Jesus 
Christ  in  confident  trust  and  loyal  allegiance  that 
Christ  can  bring  him  into  vital  touch  with  the 
forces  of  spiritual  life  that  have  their  source  in 
God,  and  so  assure  to  him  the  blessings  of  salva- 
tion. This  is  the  recovered  gospel  of  the  New 
Testament. 


PART  II 
THE  RESTATEMENT  OF  THE  GOSPEL 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  GOSPEL  AND  THEOLOGY. 

HITHERTO  the  discussion  has  hinged  upon  the 
question  of  the  true  nature  of  the  gospel.  We 
have  seen  how  Christianity  suffered  a  radical 
eclipse  during  the  first  centuries  of  its  historical 
development  by  the  change  of  its  dominating 
principle  from  faith  to  knowledge,  which  removed 
it  from  the  religious  realm  to  the  sphere  of 
speculative  philosophy.  We  have  also  seen  how 
the  original  gospel  has  been  recovered  by  a 
historical  movement  still  in  progress,  in  which 
the  modern  reality-loving  spirit  has  returned 
to  the  New  Testament  as  it  was  written,  freed 
from  the  dogmatic  system  read  back  into  it 
from  the  later  development.  What  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  is  ought  by  this  time  to  be  unmis- 
takably clear :  it  is  a  salvation  from  sin,  medi- 
ated from  God  to  men  by  Jesus  Christ,  and 
expressing  itself  in  a  new  divine  life  of  faith, 
dominated  by  the  law  of  love.  The  first  part  of 
our  task  is  completed  with  this  rediscovery  of  the 
real  nature  of  the  gospel. 

The  further  problem  of  the  restatement  of  this 
gospel  in  such  terms  as  will  appeal  to  modern 


154        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

thought  and  at  the  same  time  do  justice  to  the 
gospel  itself  now  requires  attention. 

Inasmuch  as  the  eclipse  of  the  gospel  was 
intimately  connected  with  its  theological  state- 
ment, it  has  seemed  to  be  helpful  in  the  forego- 
ing treatment,  if  not  indeed  absolutely  necessary, 
to  consider  somewhat  the  relations  of  the  gospel 
and  theology.  It  is  worth  while,  however,  to  gather 
up  the  fragments  that  have  been  scattered  here 
and  there,  and  to  discuss  more  fully  and  system- 
atically this  important  subject,  even  though  it 
may  involve  some  repetition  of  what  has  already 
been  said.  The  preliminary  questions  con- 
nected with  the  relation  of  the  gospel  to  theology 
will  be  considered  in  this  chapter,  leaving  the 
subsequent  one  for  a  suggested  theological 
restatement. 

I.     THE  NATURE  OF  THEOLOGICAL  STATEMENT. 

"Theology"  and  "Christianity"  are  not  syn- 
onymous terms,  unless  "Christianity"  is  used  in 
the  sense  of  the  historical  system  existing  in 
a  given  age.  At  any  rate  "theology"  and  "the 
gospel"  are  not  synonymous.  The  gospel  is 
primary ;  theology  is  secondary.  The  gospel  is 
not  a  theory,  nor  a  thotight,  but  a  life  and  an 
experience.  As  such  it  is  related  both  to  God 
and  to  men,  affects  all  human  interests,  and  per- 
meates every  department  of  human  activity. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  155 

Theology  is  only  the  theory  of  this  gospel-life 
—  its  expression  in  terms  of  thought,  and  for 
thought  purposes.  Christian  theology  is  there- 
fore the  science  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus. 

It  is  here  as  in  the  realm  of  nature.  The 
independent,  already  existing  world  of  life  is 
primary,  and  the  science  of  biology  is  the 
attempt  to  discover  its  laws  and  express  them 
for  the  use  of  man's  intelligence.  In  the  re- 
ligious realm  the  divine  life  in  and  through 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  primary  reality,  given  by 
God ;  and  the  science  of  theology  seeks  to  dis- 
cover its  nature,  laws,  presuppositions,  and  re- 
sults, and  then  to  express  these  in  terms  of 
systematic  thought.  Biology  is  not  natural  life ; 
theology  is  not  spiritual  life.  Life,  both  natural 
and  spiritual,  is  independent  of  the  science  of 
life.  "The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and 
thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  not 
tell  whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it  goeth :  so  is 
everyone  that  is  born" — whether  of  nature  or  of 
the  Spirit.  Life  is  here,  coming  from  regions 
beyond  man's  vision.  By  faith  we  say  it  comes 
from  God.  But  it  is  independent  of  man;  his 
science  of  it  can  neither  create  nor  destroy  it.  The 
most  and  best  that  he  can  do  is  to  take  it  as  it  is, 
observe  the  laws  of  its  operation,  and  put  himself 
into  harmony  with  them.  In  this  way  he  may 
add  to  the  sum  of  his  own  life,  by  enjoying  it  in 


156        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

greater  fulness  and  perfection.  He  may  even 
learn  enough  of  its  real  nature  to  understand 
something  of  its  mysterious  past  and  to  prophesy 
its  future.  But  that  is  all :  man,  in  his  thought, 
can  only  follow  on  to  understand  the  life  which 
God  himself  has  created.  This  is  as  true  in  re- 
ligion as  it  is  in  nature.  Theology  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  the  science  of  the  Christian 
life,  the  spiritual  life  of  God  which  was  ex- 
pressed in  Christ  Jesus,  and  through  him  to  men 
and  in  men.  Here  theology  finds  its  subject- 
matter,  and  beyond  this,  with  its  necessary  prem- 
ises and  conclusions,  it  may  not  go. 

From  these  considerations  it  is  evident  that 
the  first  duty  of  theology  is  the  explication  of 
the  Christian  faith,  and  not  of  something  outside 
of  that  faith.  To  this  faith  it  must  not  add,  from 
this  faith  it  dare  not  subtract ;  its  sole  business  is 
to  set  it  forth  clearly  in  terms  intelligible  to 
thought.  Theology  is  not  the  proud  mistress  of 
all  the  sciences ;  it  is  only  the  humble  servant  of 
the  Christian  religion.  It  will  do  well  to  curtail 
its  ancient  pretensions  and  give  its  energies  to  its 
own  great  field  of  work.  It  is  not  the  business 
of  theology  to  formulate  a  philosophy  of  heaven 
and  earth,  except  so  far  as  this  is  involved  in  the 
Christian  faith.  That  faith  can  live  side  by  side 
with  many  systems  of  philosophy.  Some  it  must 
doubtless  exclude,  because  they  involve  teachings 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  157 

antagonistic  to  its  own  fundamental  principles ; 
but  it  does  not  need  to  confine  itself  to  any  one 
philosophical  system.  Theology  has  fulfilled 
its  mission  when  it  has  done  justice  to  the  gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ  by  setting  it  forth  honestly 
and  clearly  in  a  systematic  form,  according  to 
the  best  light  of  the  age  in  which  and  to  which  it 
speaks. 

While  the  Christian  faith  itself  forms  the 
subject-matter  of  theology,  this  involves  presup- 
positions and  produces  results  which  are  of  great 
importance  in  the  thought-relations  of  the  gos- 
pel. These  also  it  is  the  duty  of  systematic  the- 
ology to  elucidate.  Given  the  historical  Jesus, 
his  life  and  teachings,  how  must  we  of  neces- 
sity think  of  this  Jesus  in  order  to  account  for 
his  influence  in  the  world?  What  manner  of 
man  was  he  ?  What  relation  does  he  sustain 
to  God  and  to  the  world  ?  We  know  of  Jesus 
chiefly  through  the  New  Testament  writings. 
How  are  we  to  regard  these  ?  What  is  their 
relation  to  the  Old  Testament  ?  Just  how  does 
the  Bible  stand  related  to  Christianity  ?  Jesus 
told  of  God.  How  must  we  think  of  God  in 
order  to  do  justice  to  Jesus'  thought?  Then 
there  is  man  himself;  what  kind  of  a  being  is 
he,  in  the  light  of  Christ's  relation  to  human 
nature,  and  his  redemptive  work?  These  ques- 
tions take  us  into  the  thick  of  the  world's  intel- 


158        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

lectual  battle.  Someone  has  said  that  the  com- 
ing conflict  of  Christianity  is  to  be  along  the 
line  of  the  Christian  presuppositions.  Whether 
this  is  true  or  not,  theology  certainly  must  deal 
with  these  questions.  It  should  be  remembered, 
however,  that  they  are  always  to  be  treated  in 
the  light  of  the  Christian  facts,  not  for  outside 
speculative  purposes.  Given  the  gospel  facts, 
what  made  them  possible  ?  Theology  must  not 
depart  here  from  the  historical  foundations  of 
Christianity. 

Christianity  involves  likewise  certain  conse- 
quences for  the  individual,  for  the  church, 
and  for  the  world — consequences  not  directly 
explained  in  the  gospel  message  itself.  A  long 
course  of  history  has  produced  results  due  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  to  the  gospel.  How  are  we 
to  regard  these  in  the  light  of  the  Christian  facts  ? 
What  new  light  do  they  shed  upon  the  nature  of 
the  gospel  ?  Much  that  was  vague  and  uncertain 
at  the  beginning  has  been  made  plain  by  the  in- 
terpretation of  history.  We  cannot,  if  we  would, 
go  back  to  the  gospel  exactly  as  it  was  in  the 
first  century.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  for  us 
to  take  it  now  in  the  light  of  its  historical  life  in 
the  world.  Theology  must  reckon  with  these 
consequences  of  the  Christian  faith  and  give  to 
them  their  valuation. 

Here  again,  in  the  presuppositions  and  conse- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  159 

quences  of  the  Christian  faith,  we  see  the  need 
of  distinguishing  between  the  gospel  and  theolo- 
gy. Salvation  does  not  depend  upon  the  solu- 
tion of  these  questions.  They  affect  only  the 
intellectual  aspects  of  the  matter,  and  have  chiefly 
an  apologetic  value.  The  solution  reached  in 
one  age  may  be  entirely  unsatisfactory  to  the 
thought  of  another.  The  conclusions  of  any  age 
are  tentative  and  partial.  These  speculative  de- 
ductions should  not  be  bound  upon  the  gospel 
with  adamantine  fetters.  Men  ought  to  be  left 
free  to  accept  the  gospel  salvation  and  to  reject 
any  or  all  human  explanations  of  its  presupposi- 
tions and  consequences. 

II.     THE   VALUE   OF  THEOLOGICAL    STATEMENT. 

We  are  now  ready  to  ask :  What  is  the  value 
of  theology  ? 

i.  That  question  can  best  be  answered  by  first 
considering  what  value  it  does  not  possess.  The- 
ology cannot  save  sinners.  This  is  evident  from 
its  nature  as  the  science  of  Christian  life.  The- 
ology can  produce  spiritual  life  no  more  than 
biology  can  produce  natural  life.  Spiritual  life 
is  the  gift  of  God :  ye  must  be  born  from  above, 
of  the  Spirit.  The  most  that  theology  can  do  is, 
by  setting  forth  the  laws  of  life,  to  make  plain 
the  conditions  upon  which  God  bestows  this  su- 
preme gift.  It  cannot  give  men  power  to  comply 


160        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

with  those  conditions,  nor  furnish  the  motive  for 
doing  so. 

This  leads,  although  perhaps  somewhat  as  a 
digression  here,  to  important  considerations  con- 
cerning how  Christianity  is  to  be  propagated.  It 
is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  this  is  to  be  done 
chiefly  by  the  preaching  of  theology.  Theology 
at  best  is  man's  wisdom.  And  it  is  as  true 
today  as  in  Paul's  time  that  "preaching  should 
not  be  in  persuasive  words  of  wisdom,  but  in 
demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power:  that 
faith  should  not  stand  in  the  wisdom  of  men, 
but  in  the  power  of  God."  Theology  is  only  the 
expression  of  the  gospel  to  the  intellectual  part 
of  man,  while  the  gospel  itself  more  truly  appeals 
to  the  conscience  and  the  will.  So  it  happens 
that  a  man  might  preach  theology  for  years  and 
really  preach  very  little  gospel,  at  most  only 
its  intellectual  aspects.  In  a  recent  criticism  of 
new  theology  it  was  declared  that,  if  the  old 
theology  was  to  be  given  up,  preaching  would 
have  to  cease  until  the  new  theology  was  worked 
out;  that  ministers  would  meantime  have  to 
"remain  in  theological  quarantine."  "What  are 
our  progressive  preachers  meanwhile  to  preach?" 
is  asked  with  solicitude.  There  is  no  difficulty 
in  answering  that  question,  if  we  discriminate 
properly,  and  realize  that  theology,  old  or 
new,  is  not  Christianity,  but  merely  somebody's 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  161 

attempted  explanation  of  it,  and  therefore  has 
no  saving  power.  If  the  explanation  of  a  past 
age  has  ceased  to  be  satisfactory  to  these  min- 
isters, let  them  leave  theology  out  for  a  time, 
while  it  is  undergoing  repairs,  and  preach  New 
Testament  Christianity.  Possibly  the  church 
may  not  be  the  loser  by  the  change.  At  least 
we  have  good  precedent  in  that  early  period 
of  Christianity  before  the  rise  of  systems  of 
theology,  when  the  church  was  so  marvelously 
successful  in  its  work  of  evangelization.  Great 
revivals  are  not  due  to  an  infallible  theology  in 
which  the  preacher  feels  unshaken  confidence, 
but  to  a  faithful  and  confident  preaching  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  to  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Where  these  conditions  are  met  revivals 
have  come  in  spite  of  poor  theology  quite  as 
often,  perhaps,  as  by  the  aid  of  good  theology. 
Effective  preaching  is,  indeed,  impossible  with- 
out positive  belief.  But  this  positive  belief 
must  be  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  great  New 
Testament  Christian  realities,  not  conviction  that 
the  current  theological  explanation  of  them  is 
right.  Thus  a  man's  theology  may  be  "in 
quarantine,"  and  ought  to  be  when  it  is  sick, 
while  at  the  same  time  he  can  keep  on  preach- 
ing Christianity  with  unshaken  confidence,  and 
perhaps  with  even  increased  effectiveness. 

Life  is  not  begotten  by  theory,  but  by  life. 


The  gospel  is  to  extend  its  sway  by  embodying 
itself  in  forms  of  life,  and  so  bringing  its  power 
to  bear  upon  the  lives  of  men.  It  was  thus  that 
Jesus  preached  it,  and  every  successful  preacher 
must  follow  him  in  this.  The  gospel  must  take 
possession  of  the  preacher  himself,  of  all  Chris- 
tians, indeed,  set  them  on  fire  with  the  divine 
Spirit,  and  so  put  them  into  living  touch  with 
men.  "Ye  are  my  epistles,  known  and  read 
of  all  men."  The  world  will  never  be  saved  by 
theology,  but  only  by  the  Christ-life  reincar- 
nated in  loyal  disciples,  who  live  out  the 
Master's  principles  of  unselfish  love. 

Here  is  brought  to  light  one  great  weakness 
of  Protestantism :  it  puts  undue  emphasis  upon 
theology.  The  public  services  of  the  church 
are  of  such  a  nature  that,  unless  constant  and 
intelligent  care  is  exercised,  the  religious  proc- 
lamation of  the  gospel  degenerates  into  the 
intellectual  presentation  of  Christian  thought. 
The  tendency  for  both  preacher  and  listener  is 
to  be  satisfied  when  the  thought  is  pleasingly 
set  forth  and  clearly  understood.  Even  if  Prot- 
estantism had  a  doctrinal  system  that  did  any 
kind  of  justice  to  the  gospel,  still  this  funda- 
mental difficulty  would  remain.  The  question  is 
not  wholly  one  of  a  true  or  a  false  theology,  but 
the  more  fundamental  question  of  trying  to  save 
the  world  by  theology  at  all,  by  that  which  in 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  163 

its  very  nature  appeals  to  only  one  part  of  man, 
and  that  the  part  least  characteristically  belonging 
to  his  religious  life.  Too  often  the  Protestant  rule 
has  been  a  maximum  of  theology  and  a  minimum 
of  sympathy.  What  is  needed  for  the  conver- 
sion of  the  world  is  a  maximum  of  sympathy 
with  just  enough  theology  to  direct  it  intelli- 
gently. There  is  room  for  doubt  whether  the 
theological  salvation  of  Protestantism  is  much 
better  than  the  churchly  salvation  of  Catholi- 
cism. A  man  can  have  an  orthodox  creed  and 
remain  unchristian,  as  truly  as  he  can  belong  to 
the  Roman  Catholic  church  and  still  be  un- 
Christlike. 

There  are  signs  of  a  better  condition  of  things 
in  the  Protestant  world.  A  clearer  conception  of 
the  true  nature  of  the  gospel  is  making  itself  felt 
in  less  theological  and  more  evangelical  preach- 
ing. Moreover,  Christianity  is  in  much  more 
vital  touch  with  the  world's  life  than  it  was  fifty 
years  ago.  Protestantism  is  beginning  to  realize 
that  the  separation  of  church  and  state  ought  not 
to  mean  the  divorce  of  religion  and  civic  affairs ; 
that  Christianity  must  embody  itself  in  the  indi- 
vidual, social,  and  institutional  life  of  an  age,  if  it 
is  to  exercise  its  greatest  influence.  The  early 
removal  of  the  gospel  from  the  realm  of  life  to 
that  of  thought  is  the  chief  reason  for  the  slow 
progress  that  the  kingdom  of  God  has  made  in 


1 64        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

the  world.  It  was  due  to  this  transformation  that 
when  Catholicism  finally  succeeded  in  conquering 
the  secular  world  it  was  not  the  gospel  of  Jesus, 
but  something  else,  that  had  triumphed.  The 
Catholic  idea  that  Christianity  ought  to  dominate 
the  organic  life  of  society  is  right.  The  trouble 
with  Catholicism  has  been  its  adulterated  gospel 
and  worldly  method.  It  remains  for  Protestantism 
to  carry  out  the  idea  by  incorporating  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  into  the  institutional  life  of  the  world, 
according  to  the  method  inherent  in  the  gospel 
itself.  It  is  in  these  ways,  rather  than  by  means 
of  theology,  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  to  be 
advanced. 

2.  Nevertheless,  the  theological  statement  of 
the  gospel  is  of  great  importance. 

It  is  necessary,  in  the  first  place,  in  order  that 
Christianity  may  express  itself  fully  to  thought. 
Christianity  is  a  historical  religion  ;  "we  have  not 
followed  cunningly  devised  fables."  It  had  its 
beginnings  at  a  definite  time  and  place,  and  has 
entered  into  history  and  helped  to  direct  its 
course.  It  has  thus  become  a  part  of  the  world's 
thought  and  life.  Moreover,  Christianity  deals 
with  questions  that  touch  the  widest  reaches  of 
thought  of  which  the  human  mind  is  capable. 
It  is  not  merely  a  sentiment,  nor  a  way  of  living, 
but  a  kind  of  thinking  as  well.  And  while  to 
overemphasize  and  misplace  this  intellectual  ele- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  165 

ment  by  identifying  Christian  thought  with  a 
given  philosophical  system,  and  requiring  the 
universal  acceptance  of  this,  leads  to  disastrous 
consequences,  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  to  under- 
estimate this  thought-element  is  to  make  of 
Christianity  a  chaotic  mass  of  sentimentality, 
unrelated  to  objective  reality  and  historical  con- 
ditions, and  to  place  it  at  the  mercy  of  subjective 
and  individual  caprice.  This  is  equally  disastrous. 
The  thing  required  is  to  deal  with  this  truth  in  a 
way  that  shall  do  justice  to  the  thought  of  Jesus, 
and  not  attempt  to  subject  it  to  metaphysical  and 
scholastic  processes.  Christian  thought  cannot  be 
ignored,  but  must  be  expressed  clearly  and  faith- 
fully, if  the  gospel  is  to  make  itself  fully  known. 

Theological  statement  is  necessary,  further,  in 
order  that  Christianity  may  secure  the  complete 
allegiance  of  a  man.  Man  is  a  thinking  being. 
Intelligence  is  a  constituent  element  in  his  nature. 
He  must  think.  The  more  of  a  man  he  is,  the 
more  will  he  think.  As  soon  as  anything  touches 
his  life  there  is  an  instinctive  effort  of  the  ra- 
tional faculty  to  bring  it  into  adjustment  with  the 
existing  store  of  knowledge.  To  the  extent  that 
this  cannot  be  done  successfully  the  new  element 
remains  unknown,  and  fails  to  influence  the  life. 
No  one  thoroughly  accepts  what  he  does  not 
understand. 

Much  more  is  it  true  that  a  man  cannot  believe 


166        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

what  is  contrary  to  his  reason.  When  someone 
declares,  for  instance,  that  he  believes  a  thing 
because  it  is  in  the  Bible,  whether  it  contradicts 
his  reason  or  not,  he  has  already  accepted  the 
Bible  in  its  entirety  because  it  seemed  reasonable 
to  him  so  to  do;  and  it  would  do  greater  vio- 
lence to  his  reason  to  change  his  previously 
established  view  of  the  Bible  than  to  believe  an 
isolated  fact  that  might  seem  unreasonable.  He 
still  decides  according  to  his  reason.  For  every 
man  the  rational  faculty  is  the  final  judge  of  the 
credibility  of  that  which  comes  to  him  with  claims 
of  being  the  truth. 

But  the  intellect  is  not  only  a  constituent 
element  in  human  nature,  it  is  also  regulative 
of  activity  and  character.  The  estimate  that  a 
person  puts  upon  a  thing  in  his  thinking  largely 
determines  what  he  will  do  with  it.  Feeling  de- 
pends upon  perception,  and  activity  of  the  will 
depends  upon  both.  A  man  cannot  be  ex- 
pected, therefore,  to  leap  in  the  dark.  The  more 
important  the  issue  at  stake,  the  greater  the 
desire  and  the  obligation  to  understand  its  bear- 
ings before  taking  action. 

For  these  reasons,  if  Christianity  is  to  acquire 
full  dominion  over  a  man,  it  must  gain  the  alle- 
giance of  his  rational  faculty.  If  he  is  to  be  a 
strong  Christian,  he  must  be  an  intelligent  one. 
Permanent  dualism  between  the  religious  nature 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  167 

and  the  rational  nature  either  is  impossible  or  is 
maintained  at  enormous  cost.  Sooner  or  later  the 
man's  thinking,  be  it  little  or  much,  must  come 
into  harmony  with  the  gospel  that  has  touched 
his  conscience  and  will,  or  else  these  will  follow 
his  .thinking  away  from  Christianity.  Chris- 
tianity, therefore,  does  not  exclude  thought,  but 
welcomes  it ;  insisting  only  that  it  remain  loyal 
to  Jesus  Christ  in  substance,  spirit,  and  propor- 
tion. 

To  reach  this  rational  nature  and  convince  it 
the  gospel  must  be  expressed  in  terms  of 
thought.  Herein  lies  the  necessity  of  theology. 
It  is  the  business  of  this  science,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  to  present  the  gospel  in  the  various 
aspects  in  which  it  touches  intelligence.  It  is 
the  mediator  between  the  gospel  and  current 
culture.  Theology,  therefore,  has  as  its  task 
the  apprehension  and  systematization  of  Chris- 
tian truth,  together  with  the  exposition  of  its 
relations  to  thought  and  to  history.  Its  sole  pur- 
pose in  doing  this  is  to  gain  the  allegiance  of 
the  mind  to  Christianity  ;  and  therefore  it  must 
work,  on  the  one  hand,  with  direct  reference  to 
the  thinking  of  the  age  that  it  wishes  to  influ- 
ence, and,  on  the  other,  with  strict  fidelity  to 
Christian  truth. 

Because  of  the  regulative  character  of  intelli- 
gence, it  is  this  faculty  that  determines  also 


1 68        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

what  comes  within  its  own  sphere  and  what  lies 
outside  of  it.  By  means  of  the  intellect  a  man 
decides  that  he  is  not  all  intellect,  and  that  the 
purely  intellectual  is  not  the  most  valuable  part 
of  him.  By  philosophizing  he  decides  not  to  be 
merely  a  philosopher.  So  also  in  religion,  it 
is  by  theologizing  that  a  man  decides  that  theol- 
ogy is  not  the  most  important  thing  in  Chris- 
tianity, and  that  he  will  be  something  more  than 
a  theologian.  Hence  a  part  of  the  theological 
task  is  the  recognition  of  its  own  proper  value 
and  limitations. 

Theological  statement  is  necessary,  in  the 
third  place,  for  the  intelligent  guidance  of  the 
church  as  a  whole.  What  has  just  been  said  of 
the  individual  is  true  also  of  the  church.  If  it  is 
to  hold  its  faith  strongly  and  permanently,  that 
faith  must  approve  itself  to  the  common  reason 
of  Christendom;  the  church  must  understand  its 
faith  as  well  as  feel  it.  It  must  know  how  to 
separate  truth  from  error.  It  must  be  able  to 
"try  the  spirits  whether  they  be  of  God  ;  "  only 
remembering  to  try  them  according  to  Christ's 
standards,  instead  of  by  metaphysical  dogmas  of 
its  own  choosing.  Furthermore,  the  practical 
activities  of  the  church  need  to  be  directed  intel- 
ligently, and  to  be  kept  true  to  the  Christian  ideals. 
If  church  doing  outruns  church  thinking,  it  leads 
to  disaster  for  both :  the  activity  breaks  connec- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  169 

tion  with  its  sources,  and  runs  dry  in  secu- 
larism ;  the  theology  is  deprived  of  its  practical 
outlet,  and  becomes  stagnant. 

The  church  can  win  glorious  missionary  con- 
quests, carry  everything  before  it  in  great  popu- 
lar revivals,  turn  things  upside  down  with  its 
practical  philanthropies  and  reforms,  and  yet 
all  of  this  be  only  a  temporary  raid  into  the 
enemy's  territory.  In  order  to  make  permanent 
occupation  of  what  it  carries  by  assault  it  must 
conquer  the  world's  intelligence  and  make  Chris- 
tian its  thinking.  Herein  is  one  cause  of  the 
wonderful  success  of  primitive  Christianity.  It 
translated  itself  into  the  thought  of  those  early 
centuries  and  overcame  it.  And  in  all  of  the 
succeeding  disciplinary  period  of  the  Teutonic 
peoples  the  thinking  of  the  church  played  an 
important  part.  Without  doubt  this  intellectual 
conquest  and  dominion  was  accomplished  at 
great  cost  to  the  spiritual  element  in  Christianity, 
by  restricting  the  scope  of  its  operation ;  but 
the  evil  was  due  to  a  mistaken  conception  of 
the  nature  of  theology,  not  to  theological  state- 
ment as  such,  within  the  limits  of  its  proper 
sphere.  In  spite  of  the  danger  of  overempha- 
sizing theology,  it  still  remains  true  that  the  reli- 
gion which  is  finally  to  bring  the  world  under  its 
sway  must  be  a  religion  that  commends  itself 
convincingly  to  the  world's  intelligence. 


170        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

III.      THE  RIGHT  OF  THEOLOGICAL  RESTATEMENT. 

The  right  of  theological  restatement  is  as  clear 
and  valid  as  the  original  right  of  statement,  for  it 
is  exactly  the  same  in  kind.  The  only  reason 
why  it  is  questioned  is  the  identification  of  the 
old  statements  with  the  gospel  itself,  and  the 
mistaken  notion  that  these  are  a  part  of  New 
Testament  Christianity.  History  makes  it  plain 
that  when  these  formulations  of  doctrine  were  in 
process  of  making  they  were  open  questions,  and 
that  controversy  raged  fiercely  about  them,  so  great 
were  the  differences  of  opinion.  But  after  they 
were  once  adopted  by  the  church,  and  men's 
minds  had  become  accustomed  to  them,  and  the 
passing  centuries  had  made  them  a  part  of  vener- 
able antiquity,  they  became  closed  questions, 
and  began  to  seem  as  sacred  and  binding  as  the 
gospel  itself;  men  forgot  how  they  had  come  into 
existence.  When,  later,  the  exigencies  of  the 
situation  forced  it  to  read  these  systems  back 
into  the  Bible,  Protestantism  ceased  to  distinguish 
between  them  and  New  Testament  Christianity. 
Thus,  for  Catholic  and  Protestant  alike,  the  one 
on  the  ground  of  church  authority,  the  other  on 
that  of  supposed  biblical  sanction,  the  accepted 
statements  of  theology  came  to  be  regarded  as 
an  essential  part  of  Christianity.  For  this  reason, 
when  the  old  statements  are  called  in  question, 
many  people  think  that  the  gospel  itself  is  being 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  171 

attacked  and  the  hope  of  salvation  undermined ; 
and  so  they  strenuously  contend  for  the  old  creed 
with  all  the  religious  fervor  that  only  the  defense 
of  the  old  faith  can  legitimately  call  forth. 

It  is  time  that  this  fiction  was  given  up.  The 
known  facts  abundantly  disprove  it,  and  it  stands 
in  the  way  of  the  progress  of  Christianity.  "Bib- 
lical theology"  is  a  misnomor.  There  is  no  the- 
ology, properly  so  called,  in  the  Bible.  There  is 
abundance  of  theological  material,  and  great 
wealth  of  doctrine,  in  the  New  Testament  sense 
of  that  term.  The  Bible  is  the  source  of  all 
Christian  theology.  But  theology  is  a  science. 
It  is  a  systematization  of  religious  truth,  and  a  phi- 
losophy offered  in  explanation  of  it.  This  science 
is  not  found  in  the  Scriptures.  The  teachings  of 
Jesus  do  not  appear  in  a  systematic  form,  but  in 
terms  of  life  and  social  relations.  It  requires 
laborious  research  and  reconstruction  to  formu- 
late them  into  scientific  statements.  Neither  do 
the  apostles  present  the  gospel  in  a  theology, 
although  doubtless  they  come  nearer  to  it  than 
Jesus  does,  and  that  is  why  theology  took  its 
point  of  departure  from  them  rather  than  from 
Christ.  But  still,  even  with  them,  while  the  theo- 
logical material  is  more  accessible,  there  is  no 
systematic  arrangement,  nor  attempt  at  true 
philosophical  explanation.  They  wrote  for  spe- 
cific practical  purposes,  and  always  massed  their 


172        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

teachings  so  as  to  bear  upon  the  end  in  view. 
They  were  scientific  neither  in  purpose  nor  in 
method.  Paul  may  have  had  a  theological  sys- 
tem, but,  if  so,  he  did  not  incorporate  it  into  the 
New  Testament ;  and  it  is  with  great  difficulty 
that  we  are  able  to  reconstruct  his  system,  even 
tentatively.  It  is  full  of  gaps  and  of  things  taken 
for  granted.  Paul  was  not  primarily  a  theologian, 
but  a  vigorous  thinker  and  great  religious  reformer. 
TJie  New  Testament  is  a  book  of  religious  truth, 
not  of  theological  science ;  and  is  content  to  state 
this  truth  in  its  practical  aspects,  upon  the  sole 
authority  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  not  because  its 
philosophical  foundations  have  been  worked  out 
and  approved. 

One  searches  the  Scriptures  in  vain  for  such 
church  dogmas  as  those  of  the  Trinity,  the  per- 
son of  Christ,  and  the  atonement.  This  state- 
ment does  not  question  the  truth  of  a  single 
declaration  of  the  Bible  on  these  great  subjects, 
nor  deny  in  the  least  their  importance,  nor  pro- 
nounce judgment  upon  the  dogmas  as  later  formu- 
lated. It  merely  brings  to  a  focus  what  has  been 
said.  The  creeds  that  have  passed  current  in  the 
church  for  centuries  were  made  without  excep- 
tion in  post-biblical  times.  They  have  absolutely 
no  divine  sanction,  except  for  the  Catholic,  who 
believes  that  the  church  continued  New  Testa- 
ment inspiration  and  authority.  It  is  entirely 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  173 

legitimate  for  a  Protestant  to  call  them  in  ques- 
tion, recognizing  meanwhile  their  former  provi- 
dential mission,  without  reflecting  in  the  least 
upon  his  soundness  in  the  faith.  What  man  has 
made  man  has  a  right  to  criticise  and  change. 

The  right  to  restate  theology,  therefore,  rests 
upon  the  same  basis,  and  is  as  incontestable,  as 
the  right  of  original  statement.  In  both  cases  it 
derives  its  justification,  not  from  Bible  sanction, 
but  from  the  nature  and  value  of  theology  itself. 
Theology  first  arose  in  response  to  the  inborn 
impulse  of  the  human  mind  to  know  and  to  ar- 
range its  knowledge  in  systematic  form.  Its 
continuation  is  due  to  the  same  impulse.  It  ac- 
complished its  purpose  in  the  early  centuries  by 
assuming  a  certain  form.  If  in  another  age  it 
can  fulfil  its  end  better  by  adopting  a  new  expres- 
sion, it  has  as  good  a  right  to  do  so. 

In  this  principle,  involving  the  interrelations 
of  the  gospel,  theology,  and  culture,  is  discovered 
a  further  vindication  of  the  right  of  theological 
restatement. 

The  gospel  itself  is  permanent,  at  least  so  far 
as  we  can  now  see.  As  long  as  the  present  moral 
world-order  exists,  the  gospel  of  Jesus  is  better 
adapted  to  save  it  from  sin  and  satisfy  its  deep- 
est needs  than  any  other  means  conceivable. 
With  all  of  our  short  comings  in  its  application, 
it  has  achieved  far  greater  success  than  any  other 


174        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

agency  of  reform ;  and  this  is  unquestionably  due 
to  its  own  intrinsic  worth  and  its  remarkable  adap- 
tation to  the  conditions  of  life.  The  gospel,  more- 
over, was  complete  and  final  as  embodied  in  the 
person,  work,  and  teachings  of  Jesus.  All  that 
remained  to  be  done  was  the  work  of  application. 
No  essential  thing  was  lacking,  to  be  supplied  by 
later  additions  ;  nothing  was  out  of  proportion, 
to  be  corrected  by  a  new  distribution  of  em- 
phasis. Then,  as  now,  and  forever,  as  long  as 
God  and  holiness,  human  nature  and  human 
need,  remain  unchanged,  the  gospel  of  Christ  is 
the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  everyone 
that  believeth.1 

This  permanent  character  of  the  gospel,  how- 
ever, does  not  pertain  to  theology.  Theology 
has  the  definite  aim  of  stating  religion  in  terms 
of  thought.  It  mediates  between  the  gospel  and 
culture.  Its  very  object,  therefore,  requires  it  to 
enter  into  contemporary  ways  of  thinking,  and 
adopt  as  its  means  of  expression  the  scientific 
and  philosophical  concepts,  terminology,  and 
dialectics  of  the  age  which  it  addresses.  These 
inevitably  react  upon  it.  The  meaning  that  they 
have  previously  acquired  colors  the  truth  they 
are  now  used  to  express.  Thus  in  the  nature  of 

'This  final  character  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  is  here  assumed; 
no  proof  is  attempted.  For  vindication  of  the  assumption,  see 
Introduction,  pp.  xxiv-xxvi. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  175 

the  case  there  cannot  be  an  independent  dog- 
matic statement  of  Christianity.  Theology  is 
always  a  combination  of  Bible-teaching  with  the 
philosophical  thought  of  the  day  in  which  it  is 
formulated. 

But  this  philosophy  changes,  and  the  culture 
represented  by  it  passes  away.  The  knowledge 
of  one  generation  is  only  preparatory  to  that  of 
the  next.  Thought  is  never  final  and  perfect. 
Not  that  it  is  all  false,  but  partial,  incomplete, 
transitory.  Each  age  sees  through  a  glass  darkly: 
the  world  awaits  the  clearer  vision.  "Whether 
there  be  knowledge,  it  shall  vanish  away ;  for  we 
know  in  part." 

"  Our  little  systems  have  their  day  ; 

They  have  their  day  and  cease  to  be  ; 

They  are  but  broken  lights  of  thee, 
And  thou,  O  Lord,  art  more  than  they. 
Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more, 

But  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell ; 

That  mind  and  soul,  according  well, 
May  make  one  music  as  before, 

But  vaster." 

The  transitory  character  of  culture,  therefore, 
makes  theology  transitory  also.  The  better  the 
theology  is  adapted  to  fulfil  its  mission  to  a 
given  age,  the  more  fully  will  it  be  saturated  with 
contemporary  ways  of  thinking.  When  in  the 
course  of  the  world's  progress  this  culture  be- 
comes obsolete,  the  theology  of  that  age  becomes 


176        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

obsolete  with  it.  This  theology  may  have  been 
formulated  in  the  supposition  that  it  was  the 
only  possible  statement  of  Christianity,  and  so 
was  the  absolute  truth  of  God.  But  the  fuller 
knowlege  of  the  new  generation  reveals  the  im- 
perfections of  the  very  systems  of  thought  that 
have  made  its  own  glory  possible.  Truth  abides 
forever;  our  apprehension  of  truth  changes 
with  the  progress  of  thought:  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  is  final  and  permanent;  our  statement  of 
this  gospel  should  keep  pace  with  the  growing 
culture.  Inasmuch  as  it  is  the  sole  business  of 
theology  to  mediate  between  the  gospel  and 
thought,  when  the  old  statements  cease  to  do  this 
there  exists  the  unquestionable  right  of  restate- 
ment to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  new  condi- 
tions. Theology  should  neither  be  bound  by  the 
past  nor  seek  to  bind  the  future,  but  should 
demand  a  free  and  independent  expression  of  the 
gospel  in  the  present. 

IV.      THE    NEED    OF  THEOLOGICAL  RESTATEMENT  AT 
THE   PRESENT  TIME. 

Not  only  is  it  true  that  Christianity  has  a 
right  to  restatement,  but  it  is  further  true  that 
such  restatement  is  absolutely  obligatory  when- 
ever changed  conditions  have  made  the  old 
statements  obsolete.  Such  a  time  has  come. 
If  Christianity  is  to  get  the  hold  upon  our 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  177 

age  that  it  ought,  its  theology  must  be  re- 
stated. 

i.  Owing  to  the  existence  of  a  new  civiliza- 
tion, the  theological  statements  of  the  past  are 
either  meaningless  or  unsatisfactory  to  an  increas- 
ing number  of  people,  in  that  they  are  expressed 
in  terms  of  an  obsolete  culture.  This  point  was 
discussed  so  fully  in  connection  with  the  modern 
religious  movement  for  the  recovery  of  the  gospel 
(chap,  iii)  that  it  does  not  need  to  be  considered 
at  any  length  here.  The  state  of  things  there 
described  as  the  result  of  that  process  is  the  con- 
dition that  now  exists.  As  the  movement  for 
the  recovery  of  the  gospel  was  due  to  the  nature 
of  the  modern  spirit,  so  the  movement  for  the 
restatement  of  the  gospel  is  necessitated  by  the 
new  culture  which  that  spirit  has  created.  This 
culture  has  occasioned  a  divorce  between  the 
modern  church  and  its  ancient  theology. 

The  recovered  gospel  has  manifested  itself 
with  mighty  power  in  these  latter  days,  and  still 
is  doing  so.  But  there  are  signs  of  a  coming 
decline  unless  the  thinking  of  the  church  is  so 
revivified  that  it  shall  be  able  to  overtake  and 
assume  the  leadership  of  the  modern  religious 
activities  that  have  outrun  it  and  come  first  to 
Christ.  The  relative  dearth  in  missionary  zeal  and 
offerings  is  not  due  to  hard  times,  but,  partly  at 
least,  to  the  more  fundamental  difficulty  here 


178        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

pointed  out.  The  missionary  movement  was 
caused  by  a  genuine  gospel  revival,  resulting 
from  the  persistent  influence  of  the  open  Bible. 
The  first  fervor  has  passed  away,  and  the  popular 
interest  will  diminish  unless  it  is  led  on  by  the  con- 
secrated thinking  of  the  church.  The  same  is  true 
also  with  reference  to  the  popular  revivals  of  the 
past  century  in  Christian  lands.  The  preaching 
has  been  on  the  basis  of  the  old  theology,  which 
has  often  been  made  an  important  issue.  Men 
have  not  been  converted  by  means  of  the  theolo- 
gy, however,  but  rather  because  of  the  gospel 
truth  presented  in  addition  to  the  theology,  and 
because  of  the  incitement  of  religious  feeling  and 
the  convicting  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The 
theology  has  not  gotten  hold  of  them,  their 
thinking  has  not  been  convinced,  and  when  the 
feeling  has  subsided  they  have  often  had  no  defi- 
nite conceptions  to  fall  back  upon.  Thus  the  very 
preaching  that  emphasizes  theology  has  failed  to 
reach  the  faculty  to  which  theology  must  appeal. 
This  is  one  secret  of  superficial  revivals,  and  of 
the  present  falling  off  in  the  demand  for  profes- 
sional evangelists.  If  lasting  work  is  to  be 
done,  if  the  ignorant  are  to  be  instructed,  the 
alienated  reclaimed,  the  heathen  conquests  ex- 
tended, the  gospel  must  now  express  itself  in  a 
theology  that  is  in  touch  with  modern  thought. 
Such  a  restatement  is  directly  in  sympathy  with 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  179 

evangelistic  activity,  and  will  give  it  guidance. 
Evangelical  Christians  are  making  a  fatal  mistake 
when  they  protest  against  it. 

All  of  the  reasons  that  made  it  necessary  for 
the  gospel  to  express  itself  in  a  certain  form  in  the 
early  centuries  in  order  to  meet  the  intellectual 
needs  of  that  age  make  it  equally  imperative 
for  it  now  to  re-express  itself  in  new  terms,  if  it 
is  to  exercise  the  greatest  possible  influence  on 
modern  life.  Only  thus  can  the  blessings  of  the 
gospel  be  preserved  side  by  side  with  liberty  of 
thinking  and  the  progress  of  thought. 

2.  As  a  part  of  the  foregoing,  but  deserving 
special  mention  because '  of  its  direct  bearing 
upon  theology,  a  second  reason  for  the  restate- 
ment of  Christianity  at  the  present  time  lies  in 
the  modern  achievements  in  other  departments  of 
Christian  thought.  The  scientific  study  of  the  New 
Testament  and  of  church  history  has  produced 
a  large  body  of  new  knowledge,  which  is  still 
increasing.  This  knowledge  has  been  accumu- 
lated independently  of  systematic  theology,  and 
has  quietly  and  unintentionally  undermined  it. 
Consequently  there  is  today  a  gulf  between  the 
scientific  knowledge  of  the  church  and  its  author- 
ized theology.  It  is  necessary  to  reckon  with 
this  new  knowledge  and  determine  its  effect 
upon  Christian  thought.  Enough  returns  are 
already  in  to  make  it  certain  that  a  theological 


i8o        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

reconstruction  will  have  to  take  place,  and  to 
render  the  beginnings  of  the  task  possible.  The 
best  assured  results  are  fortunately  those  having 
to  do  most  directly  with  the  chief  subject-matter 
of  theology.  The  new  Bible  exegesis  has  re- 
covered the  gospel  of  Jesus ;  theology  should 
now  undertake  the  restatement  of  it.  The  new 
system  of  theology  must  not  be  made  a  closed 
circle,  however ;  but  a  scientific  method  should  be 
adopted  here,  also,  which  will  leave  room  for  the 
incorporation  of  future  results  from  the  biblical 
and  historical  sciences. 

3.  A  third  reason  why  the  gospel  should  be 
restated  is  that  many  of  the  old  statements  fail 
to  do  justice  to  the  essential  truth  of  Christianity; 
they  are  more  or  less  extraneous  to  the  faith. 
Early  Christian  theology  was  the  lineal  successor 
of  Greek  philosophy ;  and  instead  of  starting 
with  the  gospel  and  expressing  only  that,  it 
attempted  to  harmonize  the  gospel,  as  a  new 
divine  philosophy,  with  the  existing  systems. 
The  result  was  that  much  outside  matter  was 
interwoven  into  theology.  Then,  after  this  had 
become  identified  with  Christianity,  all  succeed- 
ing dogmatics  had  to  reckon  with  the  whole 
combination.  Subsequent  theology  thus  came 
to  have  as  part  of  its  subject-matter  a  mass 
of  material  that  is  not  intrinsically  a  part  of  the 
Christian  faith.  A  new  statement  of  Christianity 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  181 

is  necessary  which  shall  take  the  gospel  message 
itself  for  its  theme,  and  consider  nothing  else,  or 
more,  than  this,  with  its  necessary  presupposi- 
tions and  conclusions. 

4.  Somewhat  akin  to  these  others,  still  another 
reason  for  the  restatement  of  Christianity  is  the 
need  of  a  Protestant  theology.  Protestantism 
today  has  no  theological  system  of  its  own.  It 
started  out  with  Roman  Catholic  dogmatics,  and 
for  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  has  been  trying 
to  modify  this  to  suit  its  needs.  The  result  has 
been  a  failure.  This  theology  is  contrary  to  the 
fundamental  principle  of  Protestantism,  inasmuch 
as  it  depends  upon  the  church-development 
theory  for  its  validity.  It  cannot  be  divorced 
from  the  Roman  ecclesiastical  system,  whose  in- 
separable and  congenial  companion  it  has  been 
from  the  beginning.  The  whole  Catholic  system 
is  organic ;  but  Protestant  modifications  of  it  are 
fragmentary,  without  coherence  or  consistency. 
The  Protestant  theologians  cut  down  the  organic 
Catholic  tree,  sawed  it  up  into  timber,  and  built 
a  mechanical  theological  house  of  it ;  and  alas ! 
the  house  has  fallen  upon  our  heads. 

This  lack  of  a  characteristic  theology  ac- 
counts, at  least  in  part  (the  other  part  being  the 
undue  emphasis  put  upon  theology),  for  a  Prot- 
estantism split  up  into  sects.  There  is  no  organic 
framework  to  hold  it  together.  It  is  futile  to 


i8z        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

talk  of  a  reunion  on  the  basis  of  Catholic  theol- 
ogy, even  though  that  be  confined  to  the  great 
historic  creeds.  If  Protestantism  is  ever  to  be 
united,  it  must  be  upon  the  basis  of  its  own  fun- 
damental principle.  This  principle  is  the  pri- 
mary New  Testament  truth  that  salvation  is  by 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ  and  by  that  alone;  or,  in 
another  form,  that  Christianity  is  a  life  of  faith 
in  Christ,  as  set  forth  in  the  New  Testament. 
Now,  upon  this  Protestant  foundation  has  been 
superimposed  the  Roman  Catholic  body  of  doc- 
trine. Protestantism  is  thus  made  to  rest  upon 
two  incongruous  principles,  and  is  divided  against 
itself. 

What  is  needed  is  a  distinctive  Protestant 
theology.  The  practical  and  ecclesiastical  Ref- 
ormation of  the  sixteenth  century,  which  went 
back  to  the  New  Testament  in  matters  of  church 
reform  and  religious  life,  must  be  completed 
by  a  Protestant  theological  Reformation  which 
shall  not  be  afraid  to  cut  beneath  the  whole 
Roman  Catholic  dogmatic  development,  go  back 
to  the  New  Testament  for  the  subject-matter  of 
Christian  thought  also,  and  give  to  Protestant- 
ism, in  systematic  form,  an  adequate  and  organic 
expression  of  its  own  fundamental  idea.  As 
this  idea  is  that  of  salvation  by  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ,  Protestant  theology  will  occupy  itself 
with  the  explication  of  the  Christian  faith,  as  dis- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  183 

cussed  under  the  preceding  heading.  Such  a 
theology  would  have  a  determining  influence  in 
uniting  Protestantism  in  its  conflict  with  sin  and 
with  an  antagonistic  Catholicism. 

This  theological  restatement,  necessary  as  it 
is,  is  likely  to  occasion  a  great  deal  of  discom- 
fort to  the  men  who  undertake  it.  In  the  other 
departments  of  Christian  knowledge  the  work 
can  be  done  quietly,  and  its  bearings  not  be 
clearly  seen.  But  the  theological  task  involves 
a  conscious  and  deliberate  break  with  the  tradi- 
tional theology  of  the  church.  It  is  not  always 
recognized  that  the  theologian  is  simply  bring- 
ing to  light  the  necessary  implications  of  the 
results  reached  in  other  departments;  he  is  re- 
garded as  the  original  disturber  of  the  peace  of 
the  church,  and  is  decried  as  an  arch-heretic, 
while  the  real  offenders  go  free.  If  we  do  not 
want  a  new  theology  we  must  stop  the  new 
Bible  knowledge,  we  must  overthrow  the  new 
scientific  method,  we  must  discountenance  mod- 
ern culture  and  civilization,  we  must  roll  the 
world  backward  toward  that  ancient  past  in 
which  the  old  theology  was  formed.  That  is  the 
only  civilization  to  which  it  will  ever  be  satisfac- 
tory. 

In  spite  of  the  inherent  difficulties  of  the  task, 
however,  in  spite  of  misunderstanding  or  even 
abuse  and  persecution,  the  imperative  duty  of  the 


1 84        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

theologian  today  is  to  give  to  the  church  a  theology 
which  shall,  on  the  one  hand,  do  justice  to  the 
gospel  itself,  as  rediscovered  in  the  scientific  study 
of  the  Christian  sources,  and  thus  furnish  an  ade- 
quate systematic  expression  for  the  fundamental 
principle  of  Protestantism;  and  which  shall,  on 
the  other  hand,  so  take  account  of  modern  cul- 
ture as  to  express  this  permanent  gospel  in  forms 
of  thought  and  speech  which,  instead  of  being 
repulsive  and  ineffective,  shall  appeal  to  the  mod- 
ern world  with  the  greatest  possible  force. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  GOSPEL  RESTATED:     A  SUGGESTED 
THEOLOGICAL  SYSTEM. 

IT  is  not  so  necessary  to  restate  the  gospel  as  it 
is  to  free  it  from  the  incumbrance  of  the  old 
statements.  These  have  often  misrepresented 
and  obscured  it,  and  diminished  its  effectiveness 
in  the  modern  world.  When  this  evil  is  re- 
moved, and  the  gospel  is  allowed  to  stand  forth 
as  Jesus  himself  preached  it,  it  will  appeal  pow- 
erfully to  our  age,  even  without  any  restatement. 
This  is  because  of  the  gospel's  universal  applica- 
tion to  common  human  needs  and  the  universality 
of  the  form  in  which  Jesus  presented  it.  His 
teaching  is  animated  by  the  spirit  of  intense 
reality,  and  is  expressed  in  the  language  of 
life.  These  are  two  things  especially  character- 
istic of  our  own  times.  As  we  have  seen,  the 
desire  for  reality  is  the  modern  passion,  reality 
in  religion  no  less  than  in  other  things.  In  our 
age  also  life  is  at  a  premium.  Everything  is 
judged  by  its  practicability  for  increasing  the 
measure  and  richness  of  life.  From  the  biolo- 
gist's solitary  study  of  its  origin  an-d  forms,  to 
the  greatest  invention  applying  the  new  scientific 
185 


1 86        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

discovery  to  the  world  of  affairs,  Life  everywhere 
is  king.  "Better  fifty  years  of  Europe  than  a 
cycle  of  Cathay."  And  so  Christ's  gospel, 
charged  with  reality,  and  expressed  in  his  own 
terms  of  life,  is  particularly  adapted  to  present 
conditions. 

Still,  however,  there  is  room  for  theological 
statement,  since  the  gospel  as  preached  by  Jesus 
and  the  apostles  did  not  have  a  systematic  form. 
Our  age,  so  scientific  in  its  instincts,  needs  a 
scientific  statement  of  this  gospel  of  divine  life 
and  its  implications.  Inasmuch  as  Jesus'  own 
forms  of  expression,  are  so  congenial  to  our 
times,  and  the  sole  business  of  theology  is  to 
mediate  between  the  gospel  and  the  thinking  of 
an  age,  it  is  probable  that  no  better  terminology 
is  now  available  than  that  which  he  employed 
In  this  theology  should  consider  itself  most 
fortunate,  for  its  task  is  thereby  greatly  simpli- 
fied. By  means  of  this  terminology  the  gospel 
now  needs  to  be  stated  in  a  scientific  system  of 
formal  thought. 

The  following  pages  constitute  an  attempt  to 
do  this,  in  such  a  way  as  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  the  discussion  hitherto.  It  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  what  is  here  given  is  only  a 
most  meager  outline,  by  way  of  suggestion,  and 
that  it  should  be  judged  accordingly. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  187 

I.      THE    GOVERNING   POSITION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST 
IN   THEOLOGY. 

1.  Theology  must   be    loyal    to  the   thought 
of  Jesus.     Christianity  is   not   some  vague  and 
indefinite   thing    feeling    around    in    the    dark 
among  the  world's  philosophies  and  hopes   for 
its   message.       It    has   its    message    in    Christ. 
Our  business,  therefore,  is  to  find  out  what  his 
thought  is — his  thought  about  God,  the  world, 
and   man;    about   sin   and    salvation    from    sin; 
about  how   we  are  to  live    in    our   social  rela- 
tions; about  everything  that  pertains  to  human 
interests.     When  found,  this  thought  is  to  fur- 
nish the  ruling  conceptions  for  theology,  is  to 
be  adopted  by  Christians  as    their  guide,    and, 
in    all    legitimate   ways,    is    to    be    pressed    by 
them  upon  others.     We  need  to  ascertain  this 
teaching  of  Christ  in  its  content,  its  emphasis  or 
proportion,  and  in  what  we  may  call  its  coloring; 
and  then  preserve  these  in  our  own  theological 
system. 

This  central  and  dominating  position  of  Christ 
is  the  most  important  thing  to  be  considered 
here — more  important  than  a  complete  under- 
standing of  his  person;  for  we  can  be  loyal  to 
him  and  to  his  thought  whether  we  can  determine 
his  place  in  the  world  with  entire  satisfaction 
or  not. 

2.  As  a  corollary  to    the   ruling  position  of 


1 88        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

Jesus  in  theology,  the  question  arises :  How  are 
we  to  know  him  and  what  he  taught  ?  This  in- 
volves one  of  the  most  important  Christian  pre- 
suppositions: the  place  of  the  Bible  in  Chris- 
tianity. 

The  Bible  is  not  the  foundation  of  Christianity. 
"Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that 
which  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ,"  says  the 
apostle.  The  Bible  does  not  come  first,  and 
then  Jesus,  because  the  Bible  tells  of  him.  Jesus 
comes  first,  he  is  the  reality,  he  actually  entered 
into  history  and  wrought  out  redemption  in  the 
midst  of  humanity ;  the  Bible  is  the  record  and 
the  interpretation  of  this  Jesus  and  his  work  of 
redemption.  The  salvation  of  mankind  is  accom- 
plished outside  of  any  book,  among  the  living 
forces  of  history.  It  is  a  fact,  whether  recorded 
in  a  book  or  not.  The  Bible  grows  out  of  this 
historical  redemption ;  it  is  the  result  of  it,  not 
the  cause.  This  is  a  distinction  of  great  impor- 
tance, if  we  would  preserve  for  Christianity  its 
vital  character  and  give  to  the  Bible  its  proper 
place. 

The  Old  Testament  is  the  record  of  God's 
preparatory  work,  in  the  life  of  the  Hebrew 
people,  for  the  establishment  of  Christianity  in 
the  world.  God  separated  this  people,  and  en- 
tered into  its  historical  life  through  prophet, 
priest,  law,  and  national  institution.  He  re- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  189 

vealed  himself  in  the  historical  life  itself.  The 
Old  Testament  is  the  record  of  that  life,  and 
at  the  same  time  is  also  a  part  of  it,  because 
produced  by  it.  Because  of  its  intimate  con- 
nection with  the  preparatory  stages  of  Chris- 
tianity, it  will  always  have  a  special  value. 
Because  of  the  revelation  which  God  therein 
makes  of  himself,  his  purposes  for  men,  and  the 
principles  according  to  which  he  governs  and 
judges  nations,  it  will  remain  a  great  store- 
house of  divine  wisdom.  But  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  not  distinctively  the  Christian  book.  Its 
chief  significance  lies  in  the  influence  that  it 
exerted  in  making  Jesus  of  Nazareth  possible 
and  fitting  the  world  for  his  reception.  He  him- 
self then  became  the  foundation  of  Christianity, 
and  thenceforth  the  relation  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  the  religion  which  he  founded  became 
indirect. 

Jesus  lived  and  accomplished  his  mission  of 
salvation  in  the  midst  of  the  world's  life.  The 
New  Testament  gospel  narratives  are  the  record 
of  this.  He  set  forth  the  principles  according  to 
which  his  new  religion  was  founded,  and  gave 
commandments  to  his  followers.  The  gospel 
narratives  are  also  the  record  of  these.  They 
derive  their  importance  from  the  fact  that  it  was 
Jesus,  the  founder  of  Christianity,  who  lived  and 
spoke  what  they  record. 


190        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

The  new  life  brought  to  the  world  by  Jesus 
organized  itself  into  a  church,  under  the  immediate 
direction  of  those  who  had  been  most  intimately 
associated  with  him,  and  therefore  best  under- 
stood his  will ;  and  who,  because  of  their  unique 
position,  enjoyed  in  an  extraordinary  measure 
the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  book  of 
Acts  records  this,  in  part.  These  churches  found 
themselves  in  special  conditions  of  need  and 
danger  in  the  untried  conflict  with  heathenism, 
as  the  gospel  in  institutional  form  first  entered 
into  the  world's  affairs.  The  apostles,  knowing 
Christ's  mind,  and  enjoying  his  Spirit,  wrote 
epistles  in  which  they  adapted  this  gospel  to 
these  concrete  conditions  of  thought  and  life  in 
the  churches.  These  various  writings,  thus  called 
forth  by  the  early  historical  life  of  Christianity 
in  its  creative  period,  were  collected  by  the 
church  in  the  second  century,  and  have  become 
the  classical  literature  of  Christianity. 

The  importance  of  this  literature  is  not  due  to 
outside  causes,  however,  but  to  its  internal  re- 
lationship to  the  historical  Christ  and  the  institu- 
tional establishment  of  Christianity.  It  is  the 
literature  of  the  Christian  foundations.  Its  inspira- 
tion is  the  inspiration  which  entered  into  human 
life  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  found  expression  in  the 
Christian  church  organized  under  the  direction  of 
his  apostles.  The  circumstances  attending  its  ori- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  191 

gin  can,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  never  be  repro- 
duced, and  hence  the  New  Testament  has  a 
unique  character  and  an  imperishable  validity.  It 
is  not,  however,  a  Christian  law  book  so  much  as 
the  underlying  constitution  according  to  which 
all  Christian  legislation  must  be  enacted. 

This  constitutional  character  of  the  New 
Testament  determines  the  nature  of  our  loyalty 
to  it.  The  authoritative  quality  of  Christ's 
teachings  is  sufficiently  obvious,  and  does  not 
need  to  be  enlarged  upon.  The  case  is  some- 
what different  with  the  other  portions  of  the 
New  Testament,  notwithstanding  the  traditional 
custom  of  putting  all  parts  of  the  book  upon  the 
same  plane.  The  question  has  already  been 
touched  upon  above  in  discussing  the  new 
exegesis  (pp.  103-6)  and  the  new  attitude 
toward  the  New  Testament  literature  (pp.  114- 
17).  The  difference  between  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  and  that  of  the  apostles  may  be  summed 
up  in  a  single  sentence :  his  was  universal  in 
both  form  and  substance ;  theirs  was  univer- 
sal in  substance,  but  local  in  form.  No  bet- 
ter illustration  can  be  found  than  Paul's  doc- 
trine of  justification  by  faith,  which  is  the 
adaptation  of  Jesus'  teaching  of  the  forgiveness 
of  sins  to  an  age  steeped  in  legalism.  The 
doctrine  of  forgiveness  most  effectively  takes 
that  form  in  opposition  to  a  theory  of  salvation 


192        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

by  works.  Jesus  did  not  directly  attempt  to 
combat  legalism,  but  Paul  did,  and  this  accounts 
for  the  form  of  his  teaching.  The  underlying 
truth  is  the  same  in  both  cases,  but  Paul  has 
localized  it  and  intellectualized  it  for  polemi- 
cal purposes.  Similar  conditions  reappeared  in 
Luther's  day,  and  that  partly  accounts  for  his 
adoption  of  Paul's  terminology  rather  than  that  of 
Jesus.  Again  the  authorized  salvation  had  come 
to  be  a  matter  of  works,  and  the  conditions  of 
Pharisaism  were  almost  literally  reproduced. 
Paul's  juridical  expression  of  the  doctrine  of 
forgiveness  exactly  fitted  this  condition  of  things, 
as  it  had  that  of  his  own  day,  and  as  it  will  that 
of  all  generations  in  which  like  conditions  reap- 
pear. The  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  is 
true  always,  and  influences  some  men  in  every 
age ;  but  it  is  a  particular  expression  of  the  more 
fundamental  and  universal  truth  of  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins  Such  an  age  as  our  own,  certainly 
in  no  danger  of  overemphasized  legalism,  will  be 
more  quickly  and  deeply  reached  by  the  original 
doctrine  of  forgiveness. 

The  apostles  were  thus  the  first  theologians  of 
the  church:  the  first  to  mediate  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  to  local  conditions  of  culture,  although  it  is 
true  that  even  they  did  not  do  this  in  systematic 
form.  This  conception  does  not  militate  in  the 
least  against  the  idea  of  their  divine  inspiration, 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  193 

but  rather  strengthens  it.  They  were  God-ap- 
pointed and  God-inspired  men  for  the  great  task 
of  giving  Christianity  its  first  organized  applica- 
tion to  the  world's  life.  Their  inspiration  did 
for  them  two  things.  In  the  first  place,  it  led 
them  to  understand  Christ's  gospel.  "The  Holy 
Spirit,"  said  Jesus,  "shall  testify  of  me;  he  shall 
take  the  things  of  mine,  and  shall  show  them 
unto  you ;  he  shall  bring  to  your  remembrance 
all  things  which  I  have  spoken  unto  you."  The 
promise  was  kept.  It  was  not  a  different  gospel 
that  they  preached,  as  uninspired  theologians 
have  so  often  done,  but  the  gospel  of  Jesus, 
apprehended  by  spiritual  inspiration.  In  the 
second  place,  their  inspiration  helped  them  to 
present  the  gospel  in  forms  that  were  effectual 
in  saving  the  men  whom  they  addressed.  "The 
Holy  Spirit  shall  give  you  utterance,"  Christ  had 
promised.  "  Ye  shall  receive  power,  when  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  come  upon  you ;  and  ye  shall  be 
my  witnesses."  These  promises  also  were  ful- 
filled:  "They  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  began  to  speak  ....  as  the  Spirit 
gave  them  utterance."  "  They  were  all  filled 
with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  they  spake  the  word  of 
God  with  boldness,"  and  with  success,  it  may 
now  truthfully  be  added.  Thus,  with  the  apostles, 
theology  was  practical  in  its  aim  and  method; 
they  were  first  of  all  preachers — and  theologians 


194        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

only  because  the  gospel  required  local  adapta- 
tions for  successful  preaching.  The  understand- 
ing of  the  gospel  of  Jesus,  and  power  to  present 
that  gospel  convincingly  to  their  generation — 
that  was  apostolic  inspiration,  and  indicates  the 
divine  mission  and  method  of  theology.  Would 
that  later  theologians  had  always  followed  the 
inspired  precedent! 

We  see  herein  what  loyalty  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment involves.  It  does  not  consist  in  taking  the 
apostles'  terminology,  formed  to  meet  concrete 
historical  conditions,  and  binding  this  upon  all 
ages  ;  but  in  following  their  method,  and  so  doing 
for  our  age  what  they  did  for  theirs  :  finding  the 
thought  of  Jesus,  and  adapting  it  to  existing 
needs.  In  what  respect,  then,  do  the  New  Testa- 
ment epistles  have  special  value?  Because  of  the 
unique  position  of  the  New  Testament  writers. 
Their  inspiration  differs  from  all  later  inspiration 
in  historical  connections.  They  were  either  imme- 
diately acquainted  with  Jesus,  or  with  the  men  who 
knew  him  well.  They  had  peculiar  and  untransfer- 
able opportunities  for  understanding  his  gospel  in 
its  substance  and  spirit.  Thus  the  New  Testament 
applications  of  the  gospel  constitute,  so  to  speak, 
a  book  of  religious  decisions,  of  incalculable  pre- 
cedential value.  The  apostolic  writings,  there- 
fore, while  being  in  the  form  of  special  messages 
to  definite  churches  and  individuals,  are  of  the 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  195 

nature  of  a  constitution  for  later  generations, 
somewhat  as  the  judicial  decisions  of  English 
courts  constitute  a  large  part  of  the  English  consti- 
tution. By  means  of  these  first  inspired  concrete 
apostolic  decisions,  we  are  able  to  understand,  as 
would  be  possible  in  no  other  way,  the  nature  of 
the  gospel  which  they  received  from  Jesus.  All 
new  legislation  for  the  needs  of  succeeding 
ages  must  be  in  harmony  with  this  underlying 
New  Testament  teaching.  The  New  Testament 
is  therefore  the  inspired  and  permanent  constitu- 
tion of  Christianity,  existing  partly  in  universal 
form,  as  given  by  Jesus,  and  partly  in  particular 
inspired  precedential  decisions  and  applications, 
as  handed  down  by  the  apostles. 

The  New  Testament  literature  is  subject  to 
the  usual  canons  of  historical  and  literary  criti- 
cism. But,  like  other  literature,  it  also  is  to  be 
judged  according  to  the  purpose  and  spirit  of  its 
writers.  That  is,  it  is  to  be  judged  as  religious 
literature,  not  as  theological  or  scientific  writing, 
in  the  modern  sense.  As  such,  its  truths  must 
be  spiritually  discerned,  in  order  to  be  appreci- 
ated. A  scientific  exegesis  of  the  Bible  cannot 
be  made  without  the  reverent  religious  study 
demanded  by  the  nature  of  the  writings.  Only 
a  Christian  can  be  a  scientific  Bible  critic.  The 
New  Testament  is  likewise  to  have  equal  rights 
of  credence  with  other  literary  and  historical 


196        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

writings,  and  not  to  be  discounted  because  of  its 
peculiar  subject-matter. 

So  criticised  and  judged  by  fair  tests,  in  the 
New  Testament  the  life  of  Jesus  stands  out 
clearly  in  its  main  historical  outlines,  as  do  also 
his  teachings  in  their  fundamental  principles. 
This  is  sufficient.  The  salvation  of  the  world 
rests  upon  him.  If  we  are  reasonably  cer- 
tain of  him,  Christianity  as  a  world-religion 
is  secure.1  It  is  well  for  us  to  look  at 
the  subject  in  its  large  outlines,  at  times,  and 
realize  that  Christianity  does  not  depend  upon 
proving  that  no  errors  exist  in  the  Bible,  or  even 
in  the  New  Testament,  but  that  it  depends  solely 
upon  Jesus  Christ;  of  whom  the  New  Testament 
is  a  reasonably  authentic  presentation,  both  as  re- 
gards his  life  and  his  teachings.  This  Scriptural 
and  common-sense  view  of  the  New  Testament 
will  save  the  church  from  two  dangerous  ex- 
tremes. On  the  one  hand,  realizing  that  the 
Bible  is  not  the  foundation  of  Christianity,  the 
church  will  lose  all  fear  of  historical  and  literary 
criticism  of  the  Scriptures,  and  will  have  no  need 
to  put  a  premium  upon  uncritical  faith.  Changes 
of  view,  or  discovery  of  discrepancies,  will  not 
vitally  affect  faith ;  while  a  proof-text  Christian- 
ity is  always  in  mortal  terror.  The  New  Testa- 
ment in  its  main  contents  is  well  established, 

'See  again  Introduction,  pp.  xxiv-xxvi. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  197 

and  makes  Jesus  known  clearly  enough  so  that 
we  can  rest  our  faith  upon  him.  The  historical 
and  ever-living  Christ  thus  becomes  the  basis  of 
a  perennial  Christianity.  On  the  other  hand,  re- 
alizing the  unique  and  regulative  character  of  the 
New  Testament  literature,  the  church  will  not  at- 
tempt to  depart  from  its  historical  foundations, 
but  will  come  back  again  and  again  to  the  New 
Testament  as  the  standard  by  which  to  test  its 
life  in  every  age. 

3.  The  requirements  of  Christ's  thought,  as 
recorded  in  the  New  Testament,  are  met  by 
the  following  definition  of  the  gospel,  which 
constitutes  the  subject-matter  of  theology :  The 
gospel  is  the  glad  news  of  salvation  from  sin  and  its 
consequences;  this  salvation  consisting  in  eternal  life, 
mediated  from  God  to  men  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  ex- 
pressing its  social  relations  in  a  kingdom  of  God. 

II.      JESUS    CHRIST,  THE    MEDIATOR    OF    ETERNAL 
LIFE. 

Inasmuch  as  it  is  through  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
that  we  know  the  nature  and  conditions  of  salva- 
tion, receive  the  Christian  conception  of  God  and 
the  world,  and  enter  into  communion  with  the 
Father,  it  is  most  fitting  that  theology  should  be- 
gin with  the  consideration  of  him  and  his  work. 

The  mission  of  Jesus. — The  mission  of  Jesus 
was  to  bring  men  into  the  blessings  of  eternal 


198        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

life,  by  bringing  eternal  life  into  them.  In  this 
he  acted  in  complete  sympathy  with  the  Father's 
desires  and  purposes.  By  entering  fully  into  the 
life  of  humanity,  he  knew  its  griefs  and  bore 
them ;  by  suffering  with  men,  he  made  known 
the  Father's  divine  love  and  compassion ;  by 
renouncing  sin  in  himself,  and  denouncing  it  in 
others,  he  brought  to  light  its  inner  nature,  and 
God's  eternal  antagonism  to  it.  Jesus  forced 
upon  men  a  new  conception  and  conviction  of  sin, 
and  made  them  hate  wickedness ;  he  gave  them 
a  new  vision  of  God,  and  made  them  love  him ; 
he  set  in  operation  new  motives,  and  gave  men 
power  to  actualize  their  new  ideals.  These 
things  that  he  did  in  his  life  he  did  in  a  pro- 
founder  way  by  his  death,  in  which  he  endured 
the  last  measure  of  vicarious  suffering,  sealed 
with  his  blood  the  truths  that  he  had  taught, 
and  made  atonement  for  mankind. 

Thus  the  life  of  Jesus,  culminating  in  his  sac- 
rificial death,  made  manifest  in  eternal  antithesis 
the  incarnate  essence  both  of  love  and  of  sin.  As 
a  judgment  of  sin,  the  atonement  is  a  demonstra- 
tion of  the  justice  of  God ;  although  Jesus  him- 
self never  so  speaks  of  it,  and  the  expression  is 
used  only  once  in  the  New  Testament.  The  later 
theological  dogma  of  the  death  of  Jesus  as  an 
appeasing  of  the  wrath  of  God,  and  consequent 
satisfaction  of  his  justice  by  commercial  equiva- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  199 

lent,  is  absolutely  foreign  to 'Christ's  thought. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  a  certain  school 
of  theology  has  committed  a  double  injustice : 
it  has  visited  the  punishment  of  the  guilty  upon 
the  innocent,  thus  doing  violence  to  morality; 
and  it  has  first  exacted  payment  for  a  debt,  and 
then  declared  that  God  forgives  it,  thus  doing 
violence  to  equity.  As  we  turn  from  traditional 
theology  to  Christ,  we  find  that  what  it  calls  the 
atonement,  although  not  so  designated  by  him, 
still  is  no  myth.  But  here  its  real  nature  appears. 
Not  only  does  the  atonement  meet  the  require- 
ments of  God's  justice,  but  it  is  even  more  a 
manifestation  of  the  divine  love,  suffering  with 
and  for  sinners,  in  order  that  it  may  save  them. 
This  is  the  inner  meaning  of  the  death  of  Christ, 
and  we  shall  not  be  true  to  his  thought  until 
we  return  to  it.  Love  cannot  save  except  by  en- 
tering into  the  condition  of  the  one  to  be  saved, 
and  vicariously  bearing  his  sorrow  and  even  his 
sin.  The  cross  of  Christ,  while  not  divorced 
from  considerations  of  justice,  is  yet  pre-eminently 
the  divine  manifestation  of  this  truth ;  rather, 
it  is  the  incarnate  doing  of  this  divine  thing,  in 
order  that  the  world  may  be  made  to  feel  God's 
heart  so  as  to  accept  his  help. 

This  great  truth  cannot  be  permitted  to  die 
along  with  untenable  theories  of  the  atonement 
which  men  may  make  and  overthrow.  Neither 


200        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

should  our  acceptance  of  the  fact  be  prejudiced 
by  the  unsatisfactoriness  of  the  theory.  The 
gospel  stops  with  the  fact  of  the  atonement. 
Apart  from  theory,  back  of  theory,  is  the  divine 
fact  that  Jesus  entered  into  the  world  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  God,  and  by  his  life  and  by  his  death 
in  our  behalf  brought  God's  salvation  to  men. 
The  Bible  always  presents  the  subject,  not  for 
theoretical  purposes,  but  with  the  practical  aim 
of  bringing  men  to  God.  Holding  to  these  state- 
ments in  the  spirit  in  which  they  were  given,  a 
man  is  left  free  to  combine  them  into  such  a 
speculative  philosophical  theory  as  to  his  mind 
most  satisfactorily  explains  them,  or  to  leave 
them  unexplained  by  any  theory,  if  he  so  choose. 
For  a  thousand  years  after  the  death  of  Jesus 
the  church  had  no  systematic  doctrine  of  the 
atonement,  the  constructive  theories  beginning 
with  Anselm.  A  thousand  years  hence  the  pres- 
ent theories  will  have  developed  into  more  ade- 
quate expression  of  the  truth.  All  theories  are 
fragmentary  and  partial.  The  moral  theory,  the 
governmental  theory,  the  substitutionary  theory, 
the  vicarious  theory — all  of  these  contain  truth, 
and  some  of  them  more  than  others ;  but  the 
atonement  itself  is  greater  and  richer  and  truer 
than  any  or  all  of  them.  We  rest  our  hope  upon 
the  fact  itself,  not  upon  men's  attempted  explana- 
tion of  it.  Theories  of  the  atonement  are  sure  to 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  201 

change  with  the  growing  thought  of  the  race,  and 
should  do  so ;  the  fact  of  the  atonement  abides 
the  same  forever. 

The  person  of  Christ. — Probably  the  church 
has  been  justified  in  always  placing  the  person  of 
Christ  before  his  work.  Is  he  such  a  person  as 
can  accomplish  the  divine  task  he  has  under- 
taken? is  a  question  of  fundamental  importance. 
The  Christian  conception  of  this  person,  however, 
should  be  determined  for  us,  not  by  what  men 
thought  concerning  the  matter  in  the  fourth 
century,  but  by  what  the  New  Testament  says 
about  him  and  by  what  we  may  justly  infer  from 
this. 

What  did  Jesus  teach  about  himself  ?  Although 
he  does  not  give  the  answer  to  this  question  in 
any  dogmatic  form,  his  own  idea  is  nevertheless 
plain.  He  is  the  perfect  Man,  fully  identified 
with  humanity  both  in  constitution  and  in  life 
— tempted,  suffering,  sympathizing,  serving,  liv- 
ing the  normal  human  life  without  sin.  But  he 
is  uniquely  related  to  God,  so  intimately  and  fully 
that  he  can  say  with  truth,  "I  and  my  Father 
are  one."  He  is  the  Christ,  the  authorized  mes- 
senger of  the  Father,  the  revelation  of  his  will. 
He  is  the  mediator  of  salvation,  the  way  to  God 
and  to  life,  the  Savior  of  men.  He  was  with  the 
Father  before  the  world  existed,  knows  fully  the 
Father's  heart  and  shares  his  life.  "  My  Father" 


202        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

— how  much  this  means  to  Jesus !  It  certainly 
involves  an  identity  with  God  that  is  sui  generis. 
He  demands  of  all  who  would  have  life  unfalter- 
ing loyalty  to  himself.  He  will  be  with  them  in 
spiritual  presence  and  power  after  his  resurrec- 
tion and  ascension.  He  will  come,  at  last,  in 
glory  to  judge  the  world. 

The  thought  of  the  apostles  concerning  the 
person  of  Christ  contains  the  same  elements 
found  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus :  he  is  for  them 
also  the  perfect  man  and  the  divine  Lord.  More 
emphasis  is  perhaps  placed  by  them  upon  his 
divine  attributes  and  dignity,  but  not  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  a  real  humanity.  It  is  evident  that 
aside  from  these  two  strong  convictions,  opinions 
concerning  his  person  were  still  in  a  fluid  and  un- 
formed state.  They  had  not  yet  crystallized. 
The  prologue  of  John's  gospel,  the  second  chap- 
ter of  Philippians,  and  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
look  toward  a  more  reasoned  treatment  of  the 
person  of  Christ,  but  the  religious  interest  even 
here  completely  dominates  the  speculative.  The 
time  of  definitions  had  not  come ;  it  was  rather  a 
time  of  love  and  loyalty. 

What  are  we  therefore  to  think  of  Christ  ? 
Here  arise  the  questions  relating  to  christological 
presuppositions.  These  are  not  of  such  an  ex- 
clusively metaphysical  character  as  has  generally 
been  assumed  in  the  past.  Christ's  significance 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  203 

is  chiefly  of  a  religious  nature.  Religiously, 
he  has  the  value  of  God ;  that  is,  the  man  who 
starts  with  him  finds  God.  He  that  hath  seen 
Christ  hath  seen  the  Father.  This  is  plain,  both 
from  Jesus'  teaching  and  from  human  experience. 
But  it  is  of  importance  to  note  that,  when  Jesus 
so  speaks,  he  always  speaks  religiously,  not  meta- 
physically. Nothing  can  be  more  evident.  This 
religious  value  can  be  accepted,  and  the  resulting 
blessedness  of  communion  with  God  enjoyed, 
even  though  the  metaphysical  relation  should 
never  be  understood. 

More  than  this,  no  metaphysical  explanation 
at  all  is  greatly  to  be  preferred  to  one  which 
stands  in  the  way  of  the  full  influence  of  Christ's 
religious  and  ethical  power.  The  early  church 
attempted  to  express  the  truth  about  Christ  in 
the  Logos  doctrine,  and  in  the  Chalcedonian 
dogma  of  the  two  natures  in  one  person.  For 
some  this  explanation  is  still  satisfactory.  Others 
may,  perhaps,  express  it  more  satisfactorily  for 
themselves  in  some  other  form,  or  may  not  suc- 
ceed in  finding  any  adequate  explanation.  If  the 
old  statement  obscures  for  us  the  great  truths 
that  Jesus  declared  about  himself,  rather  than 
explains  and  enforces  them,  it  may  legitimately 
be  dismissed.  We  are  not  bound  by  the  theo- 
logical findings  of  the  later  church,  but  only  by 
the  gospel  facts.  All  metaphysical  statements 


204        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

of  Christ's  nature  are  beyond  the  range  of  his 
own  teaching,  and  hence  are  binding  only  upon 
those  who  make  them,  or  find  it  helpful  to  ac- 
cept them.  At  the  present  time  satisfactory 
christological  statements  seem  to  be  far  in  the 
future.  It  is  probable  that  we  shall  not  be  able 
to  formulate  them  until  we  know  more  about  what 
man  is.  At  least  it  is  safe  to  say  that  in  the  com- 
ing statement  psychology  will  have  more  influ- 
ence, and  metaphysics  less. 

Meanwhile  Christ's  perfect  oneness  with  the 
Father  and  with  man,  in  the  sense  in  which  he 
taught  it,  making  it  possible  for  him  to  be  the 
full  revelation  of  God's  ethical  nature,  and  the 
divine  Savior  of  men,  lies  at  the  very  basis  of 
the  Christian  salvation  and  hope.  As  Paul  puts 
it:  "God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  un- 
to himself."  The  church  cannot  give  up  this  plain 
gospel  truth  without  losing  its  power  and  abandon- 
ing its  mission.  In  a  real  sense  Jesus  Christ  was 
the  incarnation  of  God.  He  belongs  to  the  inner 
circle  of  God's  being  and  has  expressed  this  in 
a  real  human  personality.  This  is  the  truth  con- 
tended for  in  the  old  christological  creeds,  and  is 
the  priceless  heritage  bequeathed  by  them  to  us. 
When  the  new  christological  formulations  are 
made  they  must  not  be  permitted  to  rob  us 
of  it. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  205 

III.   GOD  THE  AUTHOR  AND  SOURCE  OF  ETERNAL 
LIFE. 

The  Christian  God  is  the  heavenly  Father 
revealed  by  Jesus  Christ.  Theology  has  too  long 
occupied  itself  with  a  Greek  philosophical  deity 
and  a  Roman  governor  of  the  universe.  It  is 
time  that  now,  at  last,  we  let  Christ  interpret  the 
God  of  Christianity.  He  is  a  personal,  spiritual 
God,  requiring  a  true  and  spiritual  worship.  He 
is  a  righteous  God,  who  so  loves  the  world  that 
he  has  done,  and  is  doing,  all  that  he  can  to  re- 
deem it  from  sin,  not  hesitating  to  give  his  only 
begotten  Son  to  make  known  his  forgotten  love, 
and  to  show  his  holy  nature  that  cannot  tolerate 
sin.  He  is  watching  for  the  return  of  his  prodi- 
gal sons  with  all  of  a  Father's  anxious  solicitude, 
and  goes  to  meet  them  on  the  way.  If  Jesus 
did  not  teach  the  universal  fatherhood  of  God 
directly,  he  certainly  taught  a  universal  love  and 
care  which  are  paternal  in  kind. 

Yet  with  those  who  repent  of  their  sin  and 
turn  to  him  through  Christ,  God  comes  into  special 
relations  as  Father,  because  they  acknowledge 
their  sonship.  Only  for  the  loving  and  dutiful 
son  can  a  father  accomplish  his  heart's  desires. 
God  gives  these  penitent  sinners  power,  or 
authority,  to  become  his  sons  in  a  special  sense. 
They  come  into  new  relations  of  endearment  to 
him.  He  who  watches  over  the  growing  lilies 


2o6        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

and  the  homeless  birds  cares  so  minutely  for  his 
own  children  that  the  very  hairs  of  their  heads 
are  numbered.  Those  who  trust  him  come  into 
vital  union  with  him,  and  so  receive  eternal  life, 
and  can  never  perish.  He  is  Sovereign  of  the 
universe  and  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  but  his  sover- 
eignty is  exercised  according  to  eternal  principles 
of  righteousness  and  love  which  pertain  to  his  es- 
sential nature.  If  he  is  absolute  Sovereign,  he  is 
not  therefore  arbitrary  Sovereign :  his  rule  is 
still  absolutely  merciful  and  righteous. 

This  holy  God  is  spiritual  in  his  activity.  The 
Holy  Spirit,  or  the  Spirit  of  God,  is  God  dwelling 
in  his  church,  in  individual  Christians,  and,  to  a 
less  extent,  in  the  world  at  large :  guiding  and 
comforting  and  inspiring  those  who  receive  and 
yield  to  him ;  moving  to  repentance  those  who 
are  living  in  sin. 

Concerning  God,  also,  there  are  doubtless 
theological  presuppositions  of  great  importance. 
While,  if  we  are  to  be  true  to  Christ's  thought, 
the  ethical  and  religious  nature  of  God  will  be 
given  precedence  over  his  metaphysical  attributes, 
yet  God's  metaphysical  being  and  his  relation  to 
the  creation  and  continuance  of  the  universe  must 
also  be  considered.  At  this  point  theology  comes 
into  intimate  touch  with,  and  dependence  upon, 
the  philosophical  systems  of  the  day,  where  the 
problem  is  being  scientifically  and  progressively 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  207 

worked  out.  Probably  the  chief  task  of  theology 
in  this  connection  is  not  so  much  the  establish- 
ment of  any  one  philosophy  as  it  is  the  criticism  of 
all  systems,  and  the  rejection  of  those  that  are  not 
able  to  express  the  distinctive  Christian  truths  of 
God's  personality  and  free  providential  activity. 
Within  these  limits  the  widest  latitude  may  be 
given.  So  far  as  Christianity  is  concerned,  it  can 
tolerate  any  philosophical  system  that  is  congenial 
with  its  religious  ideas.  The  absolute  philosophy 
has  not  been  reached,  and  never  will  be.  Chris- 
tianity may  well  use  existing  systems  so  far  as 
they  will  help  it  to  gain  a  stronger  hold  on  the 
world's  thought,  but  should  not  ally  itself  too 
closely  with  any  one  of  them. 

IV.       MAN    THE    RECIPIENT    OF    ETERNAL    LIFE. 

God's  provision  of  eternal  life  is  made  for  the 
human  race,  and  for  individual  members  of  this 
race.  Theology,  therefore,  must  consider  the 
nature,  capabilities,  and  life  of  man. 

The  origin  and  nature  of  man.  —  Here  we 
have  to  do  more  with  anthropological  presuppo- 
sitions than  with  direct  Christian  teaching. 

I.  Christ  has  nothing  to  say  about  the  his- 
torical origin  of  man,  and  therefore  Christianity 
is  committed  to  no  special  theory  concerning 
the  matter,  not  even  the  Old  Testament  theory, 
except  in  its  religious  aspects,  at  most.  The 


208        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

Jewish  theological  implications  are  not  a  com- 
ponent part  of  Christianity.  The  question  of 
the  origin  of  man  is  not  of  vital  interest  or  im- 
portance. In  the  place  which  it  has  given  to 
the  subject,  theology  has  marked  one  of  its 
departures  from  its  proper  task.  If  the  matter 
had  been  of  special  significance,  Jesus  would  not 
have  passed  it  over  without  comment.  With  his 
deep  insight  and  his  practical  mission,  he  took 
the  world  as  he  found  it,  and  man  as  an  already 
existing  being.  Man  is  here.  How  he  came  to 
be  here  is  not  of  much  account  for  religion.  The 
important  problem  is :  What  is  he  going  to  do 
with  himself  now  that  he  is  here,  and  what  is  he 
going  to  make  of  himself  for  the  future  ? 

As  Christianity  is  not  committed  to  any  one 
theory  concerning  the  origin  of  humanity,  neither 
is  it  concerning  the  much-discussed  question  of 
the  origin  of  the  individual  soul.  Whether  the 
theory  of  pre-existence  advocated  by  Origen 
be  true;  or  that  of  creationism,  which  has  found 
able  advocates ;  or  that  of  traducianism,  as 
adopted  by  Augustine  ;  or  any  other  that  may  be 
advanced — the  New  Testament  does  not  say. 
Christianity  is  not  committed  to  any  of  them, 
and  no  theory  is  of  fundamental  importance.  We 
may  well  await  the  further  progress  of  knowledge 
for  our  philosophy  regarding  the  question,  or  rele- 
gate it  to  the  realm  of  life's  insoluble  mysteries. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  209 

2.  It  is  different  with  reference  to  the  nature 
of  man.  While  the  question  of  historical  origin 
is  not  connected  with  salvation,  the  constitution 
or  nature  of  man  is  necessarily  and  most  inti- 
mately concerned  with  it.  Here,  therefore, 
Christianity  is  more  explicit. 

In  the  first  place,  humanity  is  an  organism: 
the  various  members  are  vitally  related.  In 
Christ's  doctrine  of  human  brotherhood,  in  Paul's 
doctrine  of  the  headship  of  Adam — all  through 
the  New  Testament  this  idea  is  taken  for 
granted.  There  is  very  little  said  about  the 
exact  nature  of  this  relationship,  but  the  practi- 
cal fact  remains,  a  fact  everywhere  apparent  in 
life,  and  receiving  special  emphasis  in  our  own 
times,  that  the  human  race  is  organically  united. 
No  man  liveth  unto  himself.  The  sins  of  a  father 
are  visited  upon  his  children.  Heredity  and  en- 
vironment are  index  fingers  pointing  forever  to 
the  organic  nature  of  humanity. 

In  the  second  place,  man  is  created  in  the 
image  of  God.  Not  merely  he  was,  but  he  is 
now  so  created ;  every  man  is.  This  is  the 
religious  truth  expressed  in  the  Bible  account  of 
creation.  The  point  at  issue  is  not  so  much  the 
historical  origin  as  the  permanent  constitution  of 
man.  Humanity  is  godlike  in  nature.  Sin  did 
not  change  this,  and  cannot.  The  proof  is  that 
after  many  ages  God  entered  into  this  same 


zio        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

humanity  in  the  person  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
The  incarnation  is  an  abiding  demonstration  of 
the  fundamental  godlikeness  of  human  nature. 
Sin  has  distorted  and  dimmed  this  divine  ele- 
ment in  man,  but  not  eliminated  it.  His  very 
rational  being  is  bound  up  with  it.  The  yearn- 
ings and  aspirations  of  the  human  heart  are  the 
stirrings  of  the  divinity  within  us.  The  theo- 
logical doctrine  of  total  depravity  is  found 
neither  in  Scripture  nor  in  human  nature.  It  is 
this  remnant  of  divinity  in  men  that  makes  them 
redeemable.  It  is  this  to  which  God  calls,  and 
which  answers  to  his  long-forgotten  voice.  It  is 
this  which  gave  to  Jesus  his  unfaltering  faith  in 
human  nature  and  his  hope  for  the  most  aban- 
doned sinner. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  his  divine  constitution,  man  is 
a  sinner,  both  by  voluntary  act  and  by  nature. 
Jesus'  whole  attitude  toward  men  is  governed  by 
his  perception  of  the  ruin  wrought  by  sin.  He 
does  not  say  much  about  man's  lost  condition,  and 
he  offers  no  theory  explaining  how  it  came  to  be, 
but  he  everywhere  assumes  it  and  acts  with  it  in 
view.  The  apostles  are  equally  emphatic,  and 
even  more  explicit:  "All  have  sinned  and  come 
short  of  the  glory  of  God."  "There  is  none 
righteous,  no,  not  one."  And  because  of  the  or- 
ganic nature  of  humanity,  involving  vital  rela- 
tionship and  hereditary  bias,  the  predisposition 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  211 

to  sin  is  passed  on  from  father  to  son.  Men  be- 
long to  a  sinful  race  and  inherit  a  nature  prone 
to  evil.  There  is,  however,  no  teaching  in  Scrip- 
ture that  upon  the  basis  of  this  sinful  inher- 
itance, and  apart  from  voluntary  wrong-doing, 
are  guilt  and  condemnation  pronounced  upon  a 
man. 

These  three  truths — the  organic  character 
of  humanity,  man's  fundamental  godlikeness, 
and  his  sinful  nature  and  deeds — are  the  impor- 
tant Scripture  teachings  about  the  nature  of 
man.  They  may  well  receive  consideration  at 
the  hands  of  those  who  are  trying  to  under- 
stand man  by  scientific  study.  But  anthro- 
pology and  psychology,  in  the  proper  scientific 
sense  of  those  terms,  are  not  matters  of  divine 
revelation.  The  facts  concerning  human  nature 
must  be  sought  for  as  any  other  knowledge. 
Here,  as  in  the  philosophical  idea  of  God,  theol- 
ogy is  dependent  upon  science — in  this  case  upon 
psychology — for  its  material;  and  part  of  its 
task  is  to  preserve  these  three  great  truths,  and 
reject  any  psychology  that  is  hostile  to  them, 
rather  than  to  identify  itself  absolutely  with  any 
current  theory. 

The  origin  and  nature  of  sin. — As  with  the 
historical  origin  of  the  human  race,  so  also  con- 
cerning the  origin  of  sin,  Christ  has  nothing  to 
say,  and  Christianity  is  bound  to  no  theory. 


212        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

Again  Jesus  adopts  a  practical  attitude,  and 
takes  the  position  that  when  a  man  is  in  danger 
the  problem  is  not  how  he  got  into  it,  but  how 
to  get  him  out. 

But  it  is  relevant  and  necessary  to  ask  what 
the  character  of  the  difficulty  is.  This  must  be 
known  in  order  to  suit  the  help  to  the  emergency. 
So,  while  theology  has  no  need  to  say  any- 
thing whatever  about  the  origin  of  sin,  it  does 
need  to  consider  carefully  the  nature  of  sin. 
There  is  often  confusion  of  thought  on  this 
point.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  it  is  necessary 
to  know  how  man  got  into  sin  in  order  to  save 
him  from  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  not  the 
origin,  but  the  nature,  of  his  lost  condition  that 
needs  to  be  understood.  Men  are  here,  actual 
sinners  in  a  world  of  sin.  What  is  sin?  This 
was  the  question  that  Jesus  asked  and  answered; 
and  this  is  the  question,  therefore,  with  which 
theology  is  concerned. 

The  Old  Testament  idea  of  sin  is  that  of  dis- 
obedience to  law ;  Jesus'  idea  is  that  it  is  love- 
lessness,  or  selfishness.  Supreme  love  to  God  is 
man's  highest  privilege  and  duty.  Nothing  else 
than  this  will  satisfy  God,  or  realize  man's  true 
being  and  destiny.  The  greatest  sin  is  the  break- 
ing of  this  greatest  commandment.  Sin  is  there- 
fore not  so  much  in  acting  as  in  failure  to  act ; 
not  so  much  in  doing  concrete  wrongs  as  in  fail- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  213 

ure  to  do  the  great  right.  The  second  require- 
ment, like  unto  the  first,  is  that  men  should  love 
each  other  as  they  love  themselves.  The  second 
great  sin,  also,  is  therefore  a  not  doing — failure 
to  love.  The  nature  of  sin  is  the  same  in  both 
cases :  it  is  lovelessness.  It  is  a  matter  of  the 
disposition  or  character.  All  particular  sins  are 
the  result  of  this  underlying  sin.  On  the  other 
hand,  love  to  God  and  man  fulfils  the  whole 
law  :  concrete  acts  of  right  are  the  result  of  this 
fundamental  right.  This  was  the  new  and  unique 
element  in  Jesus'  teaching  concerning  sin  and 
righteousness.  He  reduced  them  both  to  their 
lowest  terms  and  brought  out  their  elementary 
principles. 

V.      THE    NATURE   AND    CONDITIONS  OF  ETERNAL 
LIFE. 

Such  being  the  nature  of  man  and  the  nature 
of  sin,  Jesus  set  about  saving  him  from  sin.  The 
essence  of  this  salvation  is  eternal  life.  "  I  came," 
said  Jesus,  "that  they  may  have  life,  and  may 
have  it  abundantly."  "I  am  the  way,  the  truth, 
and  the  life."  "I  am  the  resurrection  and  the 
life :  he  that  believeth  on  me,  though  he  die,  yet 
shall  he  live ;  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth 
on  me  shall  never  die."  "He  that  believeth  on 
the  Son  hath  eternal  life." 

The    nature  of  eternal  life. —  This    life    is    of 


214        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

the  same  kind  as  God's,  it  is  spiritual,  eternal, 
holy.  It  is  therefore  independent  in  nature  — 
although,  as  we  shall  see,  not  in  expression  — 
of  the  world  of  sense  about  us.  It  lies  back 
of  the  world,  within  it,  and  above  it,  giving  to 
the  world  meaning  and  value.  It  has  its  own 
laws,  in  the  keeping  of  which  is  the  continuance 
of  its  blessings.  Everlasting  life  is  the  gift  of 
God,  the  gift  of  himself.  It  consists  in  the  abiding 
communion  with  men  that  guarantees  the  con- 
tinued bestowal  of  his  Spirit  and  his  power.  Thus 
intimately  united  with  him,  it  is  eternal  in  its  na- 
ture, as  he  is  eternal.  And  as  God  is  holy, 
and  cannot  have  fellowship  with  sin,  this  life  is 
a  holy  life ;  all  who  are  to  live  in  communion 
with  God  must  take  his  attitude  toward  sin 
both  in  themselves  and  as  it  exists  in  the  world. 
"  Be  ye  perfect  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  per- 
fect." 

Entrance  into  eternal  life. —  Eternal  life  is 
entered  by  spiritual  birth.  Christ's  thought  here 
is  the  same  as  that  more  fully  elaborated  by 
Paul.  Man  is  born  of  the  earth,  and  is  carnal ; 
to  be  carnally  minded  is  death  The  man  who 
is  not  in  vital  communion  with  God  is  dead, 
and  does  not  know  life.  He  must  be  born  again, 
from  above,  of  the  Spirit  As  man  must  be 
born  once  of  human  parents  in  order  to  enter 
into  earthly  life,  so  must  he  be  born  again,  of  the 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  215 

Spirit,  in  order  to  enter  into  the  eternal  spiritual 
life. 

This  new  birth  is  conditioned  upon  repent- 
ance of  sin  and  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  As  God 
is  eternally  opposed  to  sin,  and  eternal  life  is 
a  life  of  holiness,  sin  must  be  left  behind  when 
one  applies  for  entrance  into  life.  Repentance  is 
this  very  thing :  it  is  a  determined  turning  from 
sin  to  the  full  extent  of  one's  power.  It,  how- 
ever, does  not  give  assurance  of  success,  for  it 
can  supply  no  power  to  conquer  sin.  It  is  nega- 
tive and  preparatory.  Actual  deliverance  from 
sin  is  assured  only  by  faith,  the  positive  comple- 
ment of  repentance.  Because  of  the  religious 
value  of  Christ,  faith  in  him  puts  a  man  into 
touch  with  the  spiritual  forces  of  God,  and  so 
brings  these  forces  to  bear  upon  him  in  cleans- 
ing and  saving  power.  That  is  why  whosoever 
believes  on  the  Son  has  eternal  life ;  not  merely 
as  a  future  hope,  but  as  a  present  reality.  He 
has  already  come  into  touch  with  God,  the  source 
of  life. 

From  this  is  evident  Christ's  conception  of 
the  nature  of  faith.  Faith  is  not,  and  cannot  be, 
a  matter  of  assent  to  a  set  of  propositions  which 
are  regarded  as  embodying  the  true  philosophy. 
It  is  not  so  much  an  intellectual  as  a  religious 
act.  It  presupposes  intellectual  conviction, 
doubtless,  but  adds  to  this  the  loyal  and  loving 


216        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

trust  of  the  heart.  And  not  only  is  it  religious 
in  its  nature,  but  in  its  object  also,  being  directed 
toward  a  person  whom  it  has  come  to  regard  as 
the  one  who  can  save  from  sin.  The  confidence 
and  trust  in  this  person  necessarily  involve  be- 
lief in  what  he  says  and  the  purpose  to  obey 
his  commandments.  Thus  Christian  faith  is  a 
sure  confidence  in  Jesus  as  Savior;  a  humble, 
trustful  reliance  upon  him  and  upon  the  God 
whom  he  reveals ;  together  with  a  willing  and 
teachable  spirit  which  seeks  to  know  the  will  of 
Jesus  in  order  to  obey  it.  A  man  having  such  a 
faith  God  can  save  and  bring  into  eternal  life; 
for  he  can  teach  him  his  will  and  communicate 
to  him  his  power. 

The  spiritual  birth,  conditioned  on  man's  part 
by  repentance  and  faith,  is  accompanied  on  God's 
part  by  the  forgiveness  of  sins.  This  is  not 
merely  the  remission  of  the  penalty  of  sin,  nor 
a  forensic  declaration  of  justification,  but  a  real 
forgiveness  of  sin  itself  and  the  reception  of  the 
sinner  into  fellowship  with  God.  It  is  no  com- 
mercial barter,  but  a  free  act  of  divine  grace. 
The  wanderer  has  returned,  the  sinner  has  re- 
pented and  sought  forgiveness,  the  new  germ  of 
life  has  been  implanted  assuring  deadly  antago- 
nism to  sin  and  certain  victory  over  it.  What 
more  does  God  want  ?  Nothing.  He  welcomes 
his  repentant  son  with  absolute  forgiveness. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  217 

In  spite  of  its  tragic  sadness,  and  our  desire 
to  escape  the  conclusion,  it  yet  remains  true,  in 
the  very  nature  of  the  case,  that  those  who  re- 
fuse to  comply  with  these  conditions  continue  in 
death.  There  is  no  life  except  upon  the  fulfil- 
ment of  certain  conditions.  Jesus  does  not  say 
that  it  is  desirable  that  men  should  be  born 
again,  but,  "Ye  must  be  born  again."  Unless  a 
man  comes  into  living  touch  with  God,  he  can- 
not see  life,  and  the  righteous  indignation  of  God 
rests  upon  him.  God  does  not  condemn  a  man 
for  being  born  with  a  sinful  nature  and  into  a 
sinful  heritage.  That  is  his  misfortune,  not  his 
fault,  and  evokes  in  God  only  a  sympathetic  de- 
sire to  deliver  him.  The  basis  of  God's  condem- 
nation is  man's  continuance  in  his  sinful  estate 
when  deliverance  is  offered  him.  "This  is  the 
condemnation,  that  light  is  come  into  the  world, 
and  men  loved  darkness  rather  than  light."  If  a 
man  chooses  to  remain  in  darkness  and  death,  he 
is  himself  responsible  for  the  consequences.  God 
sent  his  Son,  not  to  condemn  the  world,  but  that 
the  world  through  him  might  be  saved.  If  it 
rejects  him,  it  pronounces  its  own  condemnation. 
Nothing  else  could  by  any  possibility  result. 

Christ's  thought  concerning  life  and  death  is 
here  manifest.  Life  is  union  with  God ;  death  is 
the  absence  of  this  life.  Both  are  present  reali- 
ties rather  than  future  possibilities,  although 


2i 8        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

each  has  its  future  culmination.  As  long  as 
a  man  is  away  from  God  he  is  dead.  If  he 
remains  away  forever,  he  forever  remains  in 
death,  and  the  wrath  of  God  abides  upon  him 
forever.  If  there  is  endless  punishment,  it  is  be- 
cause of  endless  sin.  As  to  whether  a  man  will 
continue  thus  forever  in  sin  the  language  of 
Scripture  is  thought  by  some  not  to  be  abso- 
lutely explicit,  although  to  the  plain  reader  it 
would  seem  to  teach  everlasting  punishment. 
We  know,  moreover,  that  the  conditions  upon 
which  eternal  life  may  be  had  will  not  change, 
and  that  the  tendency  of  character  is  to  pro- 
gressive fixedness.  That  in  course  of  time  it  will 
become  in  a  given  man  so  fixed  as  to  make  re- 
pentance practically  impossible  is  certainly  the 
more  probable  conclusion. 

The  continuance  of  life. — Faith  in  Jesus  is  not 
merely  the  condition  of  entrance  into  eternal 
life ;  it  is  likewise  the  condition  of  continuance 
and  growth.  Sometimes  faith  is  virtually  lim- 
ited to  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  life.  Such 
a  text  as,  "Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and 
thou  shalt  be  saved,"  is  taken  as  referring  to 
one  act,  to  be  performed  at  a  given  time,  and  all 
is  completed.  There  is  willingness  to  trust 
Christ  for  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  but  no  real  idea 
of  trusting  him  for  power  to  live  by.  This 
accounts  for  the  large  number  of  men  and  women 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  219 

who  have  tried  Christianity  and  made  a  failure 
of  it.  Having  entered  into  life  they  attempted 
to  go  forward  by  themselves,  and  lost  touch  with 
the  source  of  power.  It  is  also  the  secret  of 
the  undeveloped  Christian  possibilities  which 
everywhere  are  found.  There  is  a  false  concep- 
tion of  faith.  Faith  is  the  teachable,  humble, 
trusting  spirit,  the  spirit  turned  Godward.  It  is 
the  confident,  courageous,  hopeful,  working 
spirit.  It  is  not  the  highest  thing  in  the  Chris- 
tian life,  but  is  an  indispensable  condition  of  the 
highest  and  best.  The  continuance  of  life  and 
its  progressive  develoment  depend  upon  favor- 
able environment  as  truly  in  the  spiritual  world 
as  in  the  natural.  God  is  the  environment  of 
spiritual  growth.  By  faith  we  come  into  living 
contact  with  that  environment.  Not  merely  for 
spiritual  birth  is  faith  necessary,  but  "the  life 
which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live  in  faith." 

Another  thing  involved  in  faith  is  loyalty  to 
Jesus  Christ  throughout  the  whole  course  of  life. 
There  is  no  true  faith  which  does  not  include  the 
spirit  of  obedience.  Separate  acts  of  obedience 
are  the  fruit  of  faith ;  but  the  will  to  obey 
is  a  part  of  faith  itself.  Here  again  we  find 
a  secret  of  the  superficial  and  fruitless  Chris- 
tianity which  is  so  prevalent.  Another  kind  of 
faith  than  that  of  the  New  Testament  has  been 
in  vogue — a  faith  which  has  not  realized  that  to 


220        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

be  a  Christian  means  honest,  determined,  perma- 
nent loyalty  to  Jesus  as  Lord  of  daily  living  as 
well  as  Savior  from  death.  Salvation  involves  so 
complete  a  change  that  it  is  no  less  a  thing  than 
death  to  the  old  life  of  selfishness  and  resurrection 
to  a  new  life  in  which  Christ  shall  rule ;  a  life  in 
which  every  question  is  to  be  answered  as  Jesus 
would  answer  it,  every  thought  tested  by  his 
thought,  every  act  governed  by  his  law  of  life. 
We  are  to  live  as  he  lived.  "  If  ye  love  me,  ye 
will  keep  my  commandments,"  said  Jesus.  "If 
any  man  would  be  my  disciple,  let  him  deny 
himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  me." 
To  take  up  our  cross  does  not  mean  to  do  hard 
things ;  it  means  to  do  the  one  great  thing — 
to  crucify  self.  As  Jesus  did,  so  are  we  to  do,  be 
crucified,  that  we  may  follow  him  in  self-sacri- 
ficing service.  To  be  a  Christian  is  to  be  Christ's 
man  ;  nothing  else,  nothing  less. 

The  continued  life  of  faith,  involving  vital 
touch  with  God  and  loyal  allegiance  to  Jesus, 
will  be  a  sanctified  life ;  that  is,  a  life  set  apart 
for  sacred  purposes,  and  becoming  progressively 
holy.  This  is  the  New  Testament  idea  of  sanctifi- 
cation.  When  a  man  becomes  a  Christian  he 
becomes  a  partner  with  God  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  God's  holy  aims.  But  the  vessel  so 
set  apart  must  be  cleansed.  Christians  ought  to 
be  progressively  overcoming  sin.  Sin  should 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  221 

have  less  dominion  today  than  yesterday,  less 
tomorrow  than  today  Do  we  not  almost  ignore 
God's  promise  not  to  permit  us  to  be  tempted 
above  that  we  are  able  to  bear,  but  with  every 
temptation  to  provide  a  way  of  escape  ?  Have 
we  not  overlooked  Jesus'  injunction  to  be  perfect 
as  our  heavenly  Father  is  perfect  ?  Have  we  not 
failed  to  lay  to  heart  the  truth  declared  by  John 
that  the  man  born  of  God  cannot  keep  on  sin- 
ning ?  The  fact  that  the  New  Testament  doctrine 
of  sanctification  has  sometimes  been  misunder- 
stood and  brought  into  disrepute  does  not  vitiate 
the  truth  of  it,  nor  make  less  binding  the  obliga- 
tion on  the  part  of  God's  people  to  rise  to  a 
higher  plane  of  living.  As  men  live  by  faith 
they  will  receive  both  the  motive  and  the  power 
to  conquer  sin. 

The  result  and  reward  of  eternal  life. — 
These  are  to  be  found,  not  outside,  but  within,  in 
Christlike  character.  In  earthly  life  the  highest 
reward  is  more  life,  something  that  will  make  life 
richer  and  deeper.  So  it  is  with  eternal  life.  All 
figures  and  illustrations  used  in  the  Bible  bring 
out  this  truth.  The  reward  of  eternal  life  is  more 
eternal  life — an  increased  capacity  and  increased 
opportunities  for  life.  "  To  him  that  hath  shall 
be  given,"  is  the  law  of  reward. 

This  reward  is  the  legitimate  and  logical  result 
of  the  Christian  life.  As  living  in  the  realm  of 


222        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

eternal  life  involves  increasing  holiness,  so  the 
final  result  is  holiness.  Or  is  there  any  final 
result  ?  It  is  rather  an  endless  process  of  growth 
and  perfection.  The  new  life  itself  is  its  own  re- 
ward. The  progressive  character  of  the  Christian 
prize  does  not,  however,  imply  continued  sin.  Im- 
maturity and  imperfection  are  not  sin.  They 
become  sinful  only  when  the  process  of  develop- 
ment is  arrested.  A  condition  which  is  sinless 
today  becomes  sinful  tomorrow,  because  one 
ought  to  have  outgrown  it  and  has  not.  We 
have  reason  to  hope  that  for  the  Christian  the 
time  will  come  when  growth  will  progress  with- 
out sin.  This  involves  Christlike  character,  the 
prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord,  full  of  infinite  possibilities  and  unspeak- 
able delight. 

VI.   ETERNAL  LIFE  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD. 

So  far  we  have  been  considering  the  essential 
nature  of  the  Christian  salvation.  We  have 
found  that  it  consists  in  eternal  life,  mediated 
from  God  to  men  through  Jesus  Christ.  We 
now  come  to  another  aspect  of  the  matter. 
Eternal  life  does  not  remain  an  isolated  phe- 
nomenon, affecting  only  God  and  individual 
men,  but  enters  into  social  relations  and  or- 
ganizes a  new  community,  the  kingdom  of 
God.  Sociology,  therefore,  at  least  in  some  of 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  223 

its  bearings,  must  be  considered  by  Christian 
theology. 

The  organic  nature  of  the  kingdom  of  God. — 
The  very  idea  of  a  kingdom  involves  life.  In 
the  kingdom  of  God  the  eternal  life  which  we 
have  been  discussing  is  the  life  to  be  organized. 
This  life  is  first ;  not  first  a  kingdom,  and  then 
life  put  into  it;  but  there  is  first  spiritual  life, 
which  then  brings  its  subjects  into  social  rela- 
tions, and  so  organizes  for  itself  a  kingdom. 
The  kingdom  of  God  is  therefore  organic;  it 
is  a  living  thing,  not  artificial  and  mechanical. 
That  is  to  say,  it  is  built  up,  not  from  without, 
but  from  within;  it  is  not  a  governmental  de- 
vice, but  a  family-kingdom,  with  all  which  that 
involves.  This  truth  is  one  of  great  importance 
for  an  adequate  understanding  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  and  will  save  us  from  many  theological  pit- 
falls. 

Relations  within  the  kingdom  of  God. — Inas- 
much as  eternal  life  is  the  life  of  the  kingdom, 
we  may  justly  expect  that  its  various  aspects 
will  find  expression  here.  Since  these  have 
already  been  discussed,  nothing  more  is  needed 
with  reference  to  many  of  them  save  to  indicate 
their  mutual  relations. 

i.  God,  the  Author  and  Source  of  eternal 
life,  is  Sovereign  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  He  is 
absolute  Sovereign.  In  him  the  kingdom,  with 


224        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

all  within  it,  has  its  being.  It  is  a  transcript  of 
his  nature,  the  revelation  of  himself.  But  be- 
cause the  kingdom  is  a  family-kingdom,  God  is 
Father  as  well  as  Sovereign,  and  has  all  of  a 
father's  love  and  care  for  his  subjects,  who  are 
also  sons.  When  we  say  that  God  is  absolute 
Sovereign,  therefore,  it  does  not  imply  that  he 
can  act  arbitrarily,  or  in  a  different  way  from  the 
wise  way  he  has  chosen.  God,  as  a  being  of 
ethical  perfection,  is  impelled  to  the  wisest  and 
most  beneficent  course  of  action  possible  in 
every  case;  not  from  outside  compulsion,  but 
because  he  is  the  God  he  is. 

2.  Jesus,  the  Mediator  of  Eternal  Life,  is,  by 
virtue  of  his  position,  the  Founder  of  the  king- 
dom of  God  on  earth,  and  the  Vicegerent 
of  God  in  the  kingdom.  He  is  the  anointed 
King,  the  "  Messiah."  Jesus  made  the  law  of 
the  kingdom  his  own,  and  fulfilled  it  in  his  life 
on  earth.  In  so  doing  he  gave  the  kingdom 
a  place  in  the  world,  and  around  him  it  has 
built  itself  up.  He  thereby  also  became  its  Law- 
giver and  Ruler.  For  him  to  speak  is  for  God 
to  speak,  because  he  has  made  God's  thought 
and  will  his  own.  At  the  same  time,  Jesus  was 
so  completely  identified  with  human  life  that  he 
belongs  to  the  human  race.  He  is  a  part  of 
humanity,  the  elder  Brother  of  many  brethren. 
The  kingdom  thus  has  the  advantage  of  a  Ruler 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  225 

whom  it  can  understand,  for  he  speaks  with 
a  human  voice;  one  whom  it  can  trust  and  obey, 
for  he  speaks  the  thought  of  God,  and  with  his 
authority. 

3.  Those  who,  by  faith  in  Jesus,  have  re- 
ceived eternal  life  are  the  subjects  of  the  king- 
dom of  God.  Not  all  men  are,  although  God 
wishes  them  to  be.  Those  alone  are  subjects 
who  participate  in  the  eternal  spiritual  life  of 
the  kingdom.  Men  come  into  the  kingdom  of 
God  as  they  come  into  eternal  life,  by  a  new 
spiritual  birth.  Repentance  of  sin  and  faith  in 
Christ  are  therefore  the  conditions  of  entrance 
into  the  kingdom  of  God;  and  this  entrance  by 
way  of  the  new  birth  is  accompanied  by  the  for- 
giveness of  sins. 

By  virtue  of  the  family  nature  of  the  king- 
dom the  subjects  of  God  are  also  the  sons  of 
God,  and  are  brethren  among  themselves ;  as 
sons,  fellow-subjects,  and  brethren,  they  come 
into  social  relations  that  are  governed  by  the 
law  of  the  kingdom,  which  we  are  now  pre- 
pared to  consider. 

The  law  of  the  kingdom. —  There  is  only  one 
law  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  All  former  laws 
are  fulfilled  in  this,  and  all  subsequent  ones 
grow  out  of  it.  This  law  is  love.  God  is  love  ; 
therefore  love  is  supreme  in  the  kingdom  that 
is  the  expression  of  his  nature.  The  law  is  not 


226        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

external,  but  organically  and  ineradicably  bound 
up  in  the  kingdom  itself.  It  was  this  law  which 
Jesus  made  his  own  and  fulfilled  in  himself, 
becoming  thus  by  right  Lawgiver  in  the  king- 
dom ;  and  it  is  now  binding  upon  all  who  become 
partakers  of  divine  life,  and  just  because  they 
become  partakers.  The  new  life  within  them 
is  love,  and  must  express  itself  according  to  the 
law  of  love.  Love  is  the  law,  therefore,  which 
regulates  the  community  life  in  the  kingdom  of 
God. 

Perhaps  the  law  needs  no  further  definition ; 
we  know  what  love  is.  Christ,  however,  does 
not  use  the  word  that  expresses  the  love  of  kin- 
ship and  of  earthly  affection,  but  that  which  ex- 
presses the  principle  of  altruism.  Christian  love 
is  grounded  in  admiration,  veneration,  or  good 
will,  rather  than  in  sense  and  emotion  ;  it  is  a  mat- 
ter of  choice  rather  than  of  impulse  ;  and  it  involves 
an  unselfish,  altruistic  desire  for  the  well-being  of 
others. 

The  all-inclusive  law  of  love  needs  to  be 
adapted  to  the  concrete  circumstances  of  daily 
living.  Jesus  himself  began  this  work.  Just  as 
white  light  may  be  separated  by  the  prism  into 
the  many  rays  that  compose  it,  so  Jesus  separated 
this  one  great  commandment  "to  love"  into  the 
various  commands  that  apply  directly  to  exist- 
ing conditions.  Only  he  always  made  it  plain 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  227 

that  these  separate  commands  must  continually  be 
blending  again  into  love,  if  character  is  to  shine 
out  with  the  clear  Christian  light.  Aside  from 
the  intrinsic  value  of  these  special  directions 
given  by  Jesus  is  their  helpfulness  as  precedents 
for  future  adaptations  of  a  similar  kind.  The 
apostles  continued  the  work  begun  by  Christ. 
Much  of  the  value  of  their  epistles  lies  just  in  this 
specific  application  of  the  law  of  the  kingdom 
to  the  exigencies  that  arose  as  Christianity  first 
came  into  contact  with  the  secular  world.  The 
special  conditions  that  called  forth  these  letters 
have  largely  passed  away,  it  is  true;  but  the 
apostolic  decisions  help  us  both  directly  and  in- 
directly better  to  understand  the  gospel  and 
better  to  express  it  in  concrete  laws  for  present 
conditions.  "  Greet  one  another  with  a  holy 
kiss,"  is  a  local  commandment.  But  it  helps  us 
to  realize  more  fully  that  the  law  of  love  does 
not  permit  Christian  brethren  to  pass  each  other 
by  with  scant  courtesy  and  averted  looks. 

How  the  law  of  the  kingdom  is  fulfilled, — This 
law  of  the  kingdom,  the  law  of  love,  is  to  be 
fulfilled  in  all  the  relationships  of  the  king- 
dom. It  is  to  be  fulfilled  toward  God  by  un- 
anxious  trust  in  him  as  the  strong  and  wise 
and  loving  Father ;  in  the  consciousness  that 
he,  on  his  part,  fulfils  the  law  toward  men  by 
caring  for  them.  Christians  are  to  go  about 


228        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

their  tasks  as  laborers  together  with  God,  mak- 
ing his  will  theirs,  and  choosing  his  purposes 
as  ends  that  shall  dominate  and  give  meaning 
to  all  their  work.  So  choosing,  and  so  living, 
they  are  to  work  from  day  to  day  easily,  with- 
out friction  and  without  worry.  Such  an  atti- 
tude toward  God  gives  men  right  views  of 
life,  and  lets  them  understand  it  in  its  true 
proportions.  No  human  cure  for  restlessness 
can  begin  to  compare  with  this  clear  view  of 
the  most  important  things  in  life  and  this  calm 
trust  in  the  heavenly  Father.  The  law  of  love 
is  not  fulfilled  toward  him  till  his  children  thus 
trust  him.  If  an  earthly  father  can  never  be 
satisfied  unless  his  child  has  confidence  in  him, 
much  less  can  the  heavenly  Father,  who  wants 
men's  loving  trust  above  all  things  else  in  the 
universe.  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart."  Perfect  love  casts  out  fear 
and  brings  in  trust. 

Christ  has  fulfilled  the  law  of  love  toward 
us  by  the  vicarious  bearing  of  our  griefs  and 
sins,  even  unto  death.  He  continues  to  fulfil 
it  by  still  offering  his  companionship  and  com- 
fort, guidance  and  strength.  On  our  part  this 
law  is  to  be  fulfilled  toward  Christ  by  sin- 
cere faith  and  loving  service,  with  all  which 
these  involve  of  confidence,  trust,  and  obedience. 
"If  ye  love  me,  ye  will  keep  my  command- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  229 

ments."  But  he  does  not  require  the  service 
of  slaves.  He  calls  us  no  more  servants,  but 
friends.  Hence  the  fulfilment  of  the  law  of  love 
toward  him  involves  an  obedience  that  is  ren- 
dered in  the  spirit  of  joyful  and  willing  loyalty, 
not  of  fear.  He  is  our  companion  and  friend, 
to  walk  with  us  through  the  dark  and  hard 
places  of  life,  as  well  as  along  the  easy  paths : 
"Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway."  Christian  service 
can  thus  never  degenerate  into  the  perfunc- 
tory performance  of  duty.  It  is  always  glorified 
by  love.  "Though  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to 
feed  the  poor,  and  though  I  give  my  body  to  be 
burned,  and  have  not  love,  it  profiteth  me  noth- 
ing." 

The  law  of  love  is  to  be  fulfilled  among  the 
fraternal  subjects  of  the  kingdom  by  mutual 
burden-bearing.  "Bear  ye  one  another's  bur- 
dens, and  so  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ,"  says  the 
apostle.  The  only  way  love  has  of  truly  express- 
ing itself  is  by  burden-bearing.  That  was  why 
Christ  entered  the  life  of  humanity.  God  might 
have  declared  his  love  forever  from  the  heavens, 
and  the  world  would  not  have  believed  it,  and 
would  have  given  no  heed.  Christ  proved  his 
love,  and  God's,  by  becoming  the  world's  burden- 
bearer,  and  himself  fulfilling  the  law  of  the  king- 
dom in  that  way.  So  also  must  the  subjects 
fulfil  the  law  of  Christ.  The  judgment  scene  in 


230        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew  here  finds 
its  significance,  and  does  not  need  any  far- 
fetched interpretation  to  satisfy  theological  exi- 
gencies. Men  are  judged  by  their  deeds  of  help- 
fulness, because  these  deeds  are  the  only  real 
proof  that  they  are  dominated  by  the  law  of  the 
kingdom.  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 
The  kingdom  also  cornes  into  relations  with 
the  outside  world.  The  same  law  is  to  govern 
its  subjects  there,  even  though  it  is  not  recipro- 
cated, but  is  met  by  the  law  of  the  world.  God 
does  not  confine  his  love  and  care  to  the  sub- 
jects of  the  kingdom.  He  makes  his  sun  to 
shine  on  the  evil  and  the  good,  and  sends  his 
rain  alike  upon  the  just  and  the  unjust.  He  loves 
the  world.  He  commended  his  love  toward  us 
in  that  while  we  were  yet  sinners  Christ  died  for 
us.  Jesus  came,  not  to  the  righteous,  but  to 
sinners;  the  sick  are  the  ones  who  need  the 
physician.  If  God  and  Christ  thus  show  their 
love  outside  the  kingdom,  so  must  the  sub- 
jects also.  The  lawgiver  of  the  kingdom  him- 
self says  :  "  Love  your  enemies,  bless  them  that 
curse  you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you, 
and  pray  for  them  that  despitefully  use  you  and 
persecute  you ;  that  ye  may  be  children  of  your 
Father  which  is  in  heaven.  If  ye  love  them 
which  love  you,  and  salute  your  brethren  only, 
what  do  ye  more  than  the  publicans  ?" 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  231 

It  is  in  this  way  that  the  nature  and  worth 
of  the  kingdom  are  to  be  impressed  upon 
those  who  are  without.  As  it  was  first  estab- 
lished by  Jesus  in  deeds,  so  is  it  to  be  propa- 
gated. There  is  no  salvation  divorced  from 
love ;  and  here  also  it  remains  true  that  the  only 
proof  of  love  is  in  burden-bearing.  If  Chris- 
tians are  to  help  men,  they  must  suffer  with 
them  and  for  them.  Protestations  will  never 
do  it.  Preaching  alone  will  not  do  it.  Jesus 
showed  his  love  by  deeds  of  mercy.  Having 
thus  proved  it  to  men,  he  saved  them  by  it. 
The  church  must  awaken  to  this  fact,  if  it  is 
to  impress  the  truth  of  the  kingdom  upon  the 
world  and  bring  men  within  its  own  realm. 
It  will  reach  "the  masses"  when  it  goes  about 
it  in  Jesus'  way,  and  not  till  then. 

The  subjects  of  the  kingdom  are  to  fulfil  its 
law  in  their  relations  with  the  outside  world, 
further,  by  uncompromising  hostility  to  sin. 
Sin  is  humanity's  greatest  enemy.  He  who 
loves  humanity  most  will  fight  sin  hardest.  He 
will  fight  it  in  himself  and  in  others — wherever  it 
shows  its  head.  A  man  cannot  be  a  loyal  mem- 
ber of  the  kingdom  of  God,  having  the  mind  of 
Christ,  dominated  by  love,  and  not  take  Christ's 
attitude  of  deadly  conflict  with  sin. 

Again,  the  subjects  of  the  kingdom  are  to 
fulfil  its  law  by  taking  their  place  in  the  world's 


2j2        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

life  and  faithfully  performing  their  obligations 
there.  When  a  man  enters  the  kingdom  of 
God  he  does  not  thereby  cease  to  belong  to  the 
kingdom  of  humanity.  Humanity  also  is  an 
organism,  and  each  man  is  a  component  part. 
There  are  still  the  human  relations  of  family  and 
industrial  and  civic  life  to  be  fulfilled.  "Let 
every  man  abide  in  the  same  calling  wherein  he 
was  called,"  says  the  apostle  to  the  subjects  of 
the  kingdom  who  would  repudiate  their  larger 
human  duties.  If  the  church  had  remembered 
this  truth  its  history  would  not  have  been  so 
marked  by  outrage  to  common  human  nature. 
Neither  should  it  now  withdraw  from  the  world 
and  leave  it  to  the  devil.  In  the  world  of  human 
life  the  conflict  is  to  be  waged  and  the  kingdom's 
conquest  won. 

The  progress  and  consummation  of  the  kingdom. 
— The  considerations  just  adduced  lead  directly 
to  the  last  topic  to  be  discussed — the  consumma- 
tion of  the  kingdom  of  God ;  together  with  that 
which  is  intimately  connected  with,  and  results 
directly  in,  this  final  consummation,  namely,  the 
future  progress  of  the  kingdom.  These  two  are 
inseparable  parts  of  one  movement.  In  order 
to  see  its  significance  let  us  look  again,  and  a 
little  more  closely,  at  the  relation  existing  be- 
tween the  kingdom  of  God  and  the  kingdom 
of  the  world.  The  kingdom  of  the  world,  or 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  233 

of  humanity,  is  organic.  No  man  is  isolated, 
or  can  be.  All  men  are  bound  together,  not  in 
artificial  or  mechanical  union,  to  be  broken  at 
will,  but  by  the  common  human  life  that  has 
found  expression  in  an  organic  community  of 
all  humanity.  This  old  Scripture  idea  is  re- 
ceiving an  entirely  new  emphasis  today  through 
scientific  sociology.  But  the  kingdom  of  God 
also  is  an  organism,  its  members  being  vitally 
related  by  means  of  the  new  divine  life  that  they 
have  received,  and  which  has  expressed  itself  in 
the  community  of  the  kingdom.  Yet  the  mem- 
bers of  this  kingdom  are  also  members  of  the 
kingdom  of  the  world,  thus  constituting  an  organ- 
ism within  an  organism. 

Herein  is  disclosed  the  cause  of  the  social 
ferment  and  the  significance  of  the  future  course 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth.  However  it 
came  about,  the  kingdom  of  humanity  has  be- 
come the  kingdom  of  the  world,  in  which  the 
supreme  law  is  the  law  of  selfishness,  each  man 
seeking  his  own  isolated  good,  swayed  by  earthly 
passions,  aiming  at  worldly  gains,  circumscribed 
by  sensuous  surroundings.  Persistent  strife  for 
personal  and  selfish  interests  characterizes  the 
world's  life.  We  will  freely  and  gladly  admit 
that  this  law  does  not  have  free  course,  and  that 
there  are  many  instances  in  which  the  divine 
constitution  of  humanity  asserts  its  latent  power 


234        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

and  breaks  the  law  of  selfishness.  It  still  re- 
mains true,  however,  that  this  law  is  the  dominat- 
ing one  in  the  kingdom  of  the  world.  It  is 
within  this  kingdom,  and  as  a  constituent  part 
of  it,  because  claiming  its  subjects  while  not 
detaching  them,  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
organized,  not  only  with  new  aims  and  a  law  of 
its  own,  but  with  aims  and  a  law  diametrically 
and  eternally  opposed  to  those  of  the  world. 
The  world-conflict  is  begun — a  conflict  inherent, 
inevitable,  and  to  the  death. 

It  is  easy  to  see  this  struggle  between  the  laws 
of  the  two  kingdoms  in  the  individual,  but  it  is 
also  worth  our  while  to  understand  the  nature  of 
the  movement  as  a  world-conflict  of  social  forces. 
The  peculiar  character  of  this  conflict  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  same  men  are  members  of  both 
organisms,  and  the  law  of  each  claims  dominion 
over  them.  When  a  man  has  once  come  into 
the  kingdom  of  God,  has  seen  the  beauty  of  the 
King,  and  has  felt  the  power  of  love,  this  new 
life  becomes  the  most  cherished  treasure  of  his 
soul,  and  by  its  own  vital  force  asserts  its  domin- 
ion. At  the  same  time  this  man,  as  subject  also 
in  the  kingdom  of  the  world,  must  take  his  place 
in  the  world  and  do  his  work  in  society.  But 
inasmuch  as  the  law  of  society  still  remains  the 
law  of  the  world,  which  is  firmly  intrenched  in 
industrial  and  social  institutions,  when  the  sub- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  235 

jects  of  the  kingdom  of  God  come  into  this 
complex  social  life,  of  which  they  are  still  an 
organic  part,  they  come  perforce  into  conflict 
with  the  laws  of  the  kingdom  of  the  world. 
They  must  either  act  according  to  the  old  social 
laws,  and  outrage  their  conscience,  or  else  stand 
by  their  conscience  and  commit  social  and 
industrial  suicide ;  or,  as  is  probably  the  case 
with  the  majority,  adopt  the  laws  of  the  world, 
and  strive  to  still  their  conscience  by  attempting 
to  mitigate  the  more  glaring  evils  of  worldliness, 
and  color  them  a  little  with  the  halo  of  the 
heavenly  kingdom's  love. 

Nothing  at  the  present  day  so  hinders  the 
progress  of  the  kingdom  of  God  as  this  persist- 
ence of  the  old  law  of  the  world  in  social  institu- 
tions. And  the  time  is  coming  when  it  must  give 
way.  Eventually  Christians  must  either  with- 
draw from  the  world  or  conquer  it  wholly.  No 
one  who  comprehends  at  all  the  nature  and  power 
of  Christianity  will  doubt  which  is  to  be.  When  the 
new  kingdom  began  on  earth,  it  found  the  law  of 
the  kingdom  of  the  world  dominant.  It  could  not 
be  expected  to  overthrow  this  at  once ;  the  leaven 
must  have  time  to  spread.  It  did  make  the 
attempt,  however,  within  three  hundred  years, 
when  the  Catholic  church,  as  an  earthly  organi- 
zation of  the  kingdom  of  God,  entered  into 
conflict  with  the  kingdom  of  the  world.  But 


236        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

this  was  done  under  a  misconception  of  the  inner 
nature  of  the  contest.  The  church  adopted,  first 
the  weapons,  and  then  the  law,  of  the  world,  and 
ended  by  itself  becoming  a  worldly  kingdom 
fighting  for  supremacy  among  other  worldly 
kingdoms.  The  true  kingdom  of  God  had  not 
yet  gained  strength  enough  to  change  the  old 
constitution  of  society. 

But  this  kingdom  has  been  quietly  growing 
through  the  centuries.  Its  nature  is  becoming 
ever  more  clearly  understood  in  the  midst  of 
God's  historical  discipline,  and  its  real  power  is  felt 
today  over  a  wider  range  of  life  than  ever  before. 
Perhaps  the  time  has  not  yet  come  when  the 
new  kingdom  can  overthrow  the  old,  drive  the 
law  of  selfishness  out  of  social  institutions,  and 
incorporate  the  new  law  of  love.  But  that  day 
is  approaching,  and  will  surely  come.  Just  how 
soon  it  will  come  depends,  not  upon  God,  for  he 
has  always  been  doing  his  utmost  to  bring  it  to 
pass,  but  upon  the  fidelity  of  the  children  of  the 
kingdom  to  its  principles,  and  upon  the  courage 
and  wisdom  with  which  they  conduct  the  warfare 
against  the  kingdom  of  the  world.  The  conflict 
will  not  cease  until  the  kingdom  of  God  triumphs. 
Already  the  expansive  power  of  the  gospel  has 
occasioned  great  social  upheavals  and  overturn- 
ings.  It  is  destined  to  work  yet  greater  revolu- 
tions. For  this  struggle  is  the  meaning  of  the 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  237 

world's  history,  and  is  shaping  its  course.  Some- 
times quiescent  beneath  the  surface,  recuperating 
the  exhausted  forces,  ever  and  again  breaking  out 
in  fierce  open  battle  at  the  world's  historical  crises, 
still  the  mighty  combat  wages  and  yet  shall  wage. 
This  is  the  coming  world-struggle,  this  fight  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  to  dominate  the  institutional 
life  of  mankind.  The  kingdom  already  is  gain- 
ing strength  for  victory.  As  surely  as  it  is 
the  right  kingdom  for  humanity,  and  contains  its 
highest  good — and  that  is  as  sure  as  that  God, 
whose  nature  the  kingdom  expresses,  is  right — 
just  so  surely  there  must  come  a  radical  transfor- 
mation of  society,  in  which  the  law  of  this  king- 
dom shall  supplant  the  law  of  the  kingdom  of 
the  world.  Then  shall  be  fulfilled  the  divine 
ideal  of  the  future  which  was  the  hope  of  the 
Hebrew  prophets,  even  when  the  powers  of  the 
world  were  strongest ;  then  shall  be  realized  the 
divine  vision  of  John  the  apostle,  when,  exiled 
by  the  kingdom  of  the  world,  he  looked  into  the 
future  and  saw  the  day  when  that  kingdom — not 
"kingdoms" — had  become  the  kingdom  of  our 
Lord  and  of  his  Christ;  then  shall  be  reached 
that  consummation  which  has  been  the  dream  of 
prophets  and  seers  in  all  ages, 

"  That  one  far-off  divine  event 
Toward  which  the  whole  creation  moves."1 

1  It  is  well  to  call  attention  again  to  the  fact  that  this  triumph 
of  Christianity  is  the  sublime  assumption  of  the  gospel  itself,  and 


238        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

This  will  be  the  triumph  of  the  Son  of  man, 
when  he  shall  come  in  glory.  The  kingdom  that 
he  founded  in  lowliness  and  apparent  defeat,  but 
with  sublime  faith  in  its  ultimate  success,  will  have 
vindicated  its  divine  power  and  its  Founder's 
true  perception  of  the  deepest  needs  of  humanity. 
What  more  there  will  be  in  the  coming  of  the 
Son  of  man  we  do  not  know.  It  seems  probable 
that  he  will  come  in  this  final  triumph,  as  he  has 
in  former  partial  triumphs,  by  way  of  some  great 
social  upheaval,  which  will  constitute  the  ultimate 
crisis  of  history  and  mark  the  death  throes  of  the 
kingdom  of  the  world.  But  it  is  hardly  worth 
while  to  attempt  to  rend  the  veil  of  the  future 
that  we  may  see  the  circumstances  accompanying 
the  end.  The  language  of  Scripture  is  figurative 
and  vague  with  reference  to  everything  except 
the  fact  itself.  And  nothing  else  is  of  serious  im- 
portance. In  view,  however,  of  the  commentary 
of  the  past  eighteen  hundred  years,  it  is  fairly 
certain  that  this  result  will  be  accomplished  as  a 
part  of  the  historical  process  itself,  and  not  by 
some  spectacular  event  wholly  outside  of  organic 
connection  with  the  previous  development  of  the 
kingdom.  The  day  of  the  deus  ex  machina  is  past. 

that  no  attempt  is  here  made  to  prove  it.  See  Introduction,  pp. 
xxiv-xxvi.  The  only  thing  attempted  here  is  to  point  out  the  char- 
acter of  the  conflict  and  the  direction  which  it  will  take.  An 
adequate  treatment  of  the  subject  would  of  course  require  a 
much  fuller  discussion  than  can  be  entered  into  in  this  outline. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  239 

Such  is  the  future  of  the  kingdom;  but 
how  about  its  consummation  ?  Properly  speak- 
ing, there  is  no  consummation.  It  is  an  ever- 
lasting kingdom ;  of  it  there  shall  be  no  end. 
This  triumph  of  the  kingdom  marks,  however, 
the  consummation  of  the  age — the  age  in 
which  it  was  founded,  and  which  is  character- 
ized by  the  dominance  of  the  kingdom  of  the 
world  and  the  new  kingdom's  growing  strength. 
What  will  come  after  this  age  we  know  only 
inferentially.  Just  as  with  the  individual  the 
very  process  of  living  the  new  life  brings  its  own 
intrinsic  reward  in  the  form  of  Christlike  char- 
acter and  richer  life,  so  also  with  the  kingdom 
will  the  next  age  be  the  logical  and  necessary 
outcome  of  its  own  nature  as  manifested  in 
the  course  of  its  development.  The  desire  of 
the  human  mind  for  definiteness  here,  for  the 
compassing  of  the  end,  will  not  be  satisfied ;  for 
there  is  no  end.  We  have  left  the  realm  of  finite 
time,  and  passed  beyond  the  limits  of  finite 
thought,  out  into  the  eternities  of  God  which 
conceal  the  beginning  and  the  end  from  our  most 
searching  gaze.  It  is  well  so.  In  this  the  divinity 
of  the  kingdom  again  manifests  itself.  Its  last 
message,  from  as  far  into  the  future  as  the  human 
mind  can  reach,  is  that  the  highest  good  of  man 
is  not  a  fixed  state,  but  still  a  growth  and  a 
becoming. 


CHAPTER  III. 

CONCLUSION. 

LOOKING  back  now  at  the  whole  process  which 
we  have  tried  to  describe,  and  the  conclusions 
reached,  it  is  hoped  that  the  significance  of  the 
matter  set  forth  is  plain.  The  author  of  this 
volume  certainly  does  not  make  any  claim  to  the 
original  discovery  of  the  nature  of  the  movement 
that  has  been  going  on,  or  to  an  exclusive  appre- 
ciation of  its  meaning,  although  he  has  nowhere 
seen  it  described  in  the  systematic  form  here 
given  it.1  Detached  perceptions  of  it  appear 
here  and  there,  and  the  ideas  are  fast  making 
their  way  as  a  part  of  intelligent  Christian  think- 
ing everywhere.  Indeed,  it  is  surprising  how 
rapidly  the  conditions  of  religious  thought  are 
changing,  and  from  how  many  different  sources 
come  words  which  show  that  men  are  dealing 
with  the  problem  discussed  in  the  foregoing 

1  Since  writing  these  words  the  author  has  read  Harnack's 
great  work,  in  which  the  historical  aspects  of  the  subject  here 
treated  are  so  clearly  brought  out.  While  Harnack  does  not 
directly  discuss  the  question  either  of  the  recovery  or  the  restate- 
ment of  the  gospel,  yet  his  views  concerning  both  are  very  evi- 
dent. Harnack's  later  lectures,  "What  is  Christianity?"  come 
nearer  the  core  of  the  matter. 

240 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  241 

pages.  An  attempt  has  here  been  made  to  bring 
these  current  ideas  into  definite  expression  and 
give  to  the  subject  the  importance  that  it  de- 
serves. 

The  significance  of  the  matter  for  the  theo- 
logical world  is  of  such  far-reaching  import  that 
without  exaggeration  it  may  be  compared  to  the 
revolution  wrought  by  Kant  in  philosophy,  and 
by  Copernicus  in  astronomy.1  It  will  be  inter- 
esting to  recall  Kant's  words  : 

In  metaphysical  speculations  it  has  always  been  assumed 
that  all  our  knowledge  must  conform  to  objects ;  but  every 
attempt  from  this  point  of  view  to  extend  our  knowledge 
of  objects  a  priori  by  means  of  conceptions  has  ended  in 
failure.  The  time  has  now  come  to  ask  whether  better 
progress  may  not  be  made  by  supposing  that  objects  must 

conform  to  our  knowledge Our  suggestion  is  similar 

to  that  of  Copernicus  in  astronomy,  who,  finding  it  impos- 
sible to  explain  the  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies  on 
the  supposition  that  they  turned  round  the  spectator,  tried 
whether  he  might  not  succeed  better  by  supposing  the 
spectator  to  revolve  and  the  stars  to  remain  at  rest.  Let 
us  make  a  similar  experiment  in  metaphysics  with  per- 
ception. 

The  revolution  now  going  on  in  theology  is 
like  these  in  astronomy  and  philosophy  in  that 
it  radically  changes  the  center  of  things  in  the 
science  affected.  Ever  since  the  inception  of 

'It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  the  author  does  not  mean 
that  the  importance  of  his  own  production  is  to  be  compared  to 
the  work  of  Kant  and  Copernicus ;  the  reference  is  to  the  change 
in  thought  just  referred  to  as  becoming  so  common. 


242        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

theology  the  gospel  has  been  made  to  revolve 
about  philosophy.  Or,  at  the  very  best,  philoso- 
phy has  constituted  an  independent  center  co- 
ordinate with  the  gospel,  and  the  two  have  revolved 
about  each  other.  Sometimes,  as  at  the  first,  this 
philosophy  has  come  from  outside  sources ;  at 
other  times  it  has  been  found  within  authorized 
Christianity,  in  the  theology  that  had  itself  become 
a  speculative  system.  From  the  days  of  the 
origin  of  theology,  when  the  historical  Jesus  was 
displaced  by  the  philosophical  Logos,  and  the 
heavenly  Father  was  transformed  into  a  meta- 
physical idea,  up  to  the  present  time,  the  philo- 
sophical domination  has  continued  in  Chris- 
tianity. Each  generation  has  taken  up  the  process 
where  the  preceding  generation  left  off,  and  has 
added  theological  cycle  to  epicycle  in  the  hope 
of  reconciling  the  new  knowledge  with  the  old 
system.  But  the  discrepancies  have  finally  become 
so  pronounced  as  to  make  it  evident  that  the 
trouble  is  not  one  of  accidental  aberrations,  but 
that  something  is  fundamentally  wrong  in  the 
system  itself.  Theology,  according  to  the  old 
method,  has  often  proved  a  failure.  Instead  of 
leading  the  life  of  the  church,  it  has  lagged 
behind  and  become  a  burden.  Its  whole  course  is 
marked  by  arid  stretches  of  acrimonious  intel- 
lectualism  that  have  misrepresented  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  and  weakened  its  power. 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  243 

The  time  has  now  come  when  it  is  worth  while 
to  see  whether  better  success  may  not  be  achieved 
by  a  change  of  center ;  and,  instead  of  supposing 
the  gospel  to  revolve  about  philosophical  dogmas, 
to  make  these  revolve  about  the  historical  Jesus 
of  Nazareth.  Each  generation,  instead  of  start- 
ing with  the  theological  conclusions  of  a  former 
time,  will  thus  be  sent  back  for  itself  to  the  gospel 
of  Jesus,  and  will  state  this  gospel  de  novo  as  often 
as  changing  conditions  make  it  advisable  to  do  so. 
Superficial  theological  makeshifts  will  disappear, 
along  with  the  false  system  which  made  them 
necessary,  and  that  real  harmony  will  be  brought 
to  light  which  always  manifests  itself  when  the 
true  center  is  found. 

In  every  department  of  knowledge  this  emer- 
gence of  harmony  is  the  strongest  proof  that  the 
right  theory  has  been  discovered ;  the  phenomena 
are  satisfactorily  explained.  The  best  evidence 
that  a  certain  key  is  the  right  one  is  that  it  turns 
the  bolt  of  the  lock.  The  best  and  only  proof 
that  the  right  key  has  been  discovered  for  the 
decipherment  of  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  is 
that  they  make  sense  when  interpreted  by  it. 
The  demonstration  of  the  truth  of  the  Copernican 
system  is  that  it  reveals  harmonious  order  in  the 
movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  In  like  man- 
ner, the  best  proof  that  the  new  theological  center 
here  contended  for  is  the  true  one  lies  in  the 


244        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

fact  that  this  theory  satisfactorily  explains  the 
phenomena  of  the  religious  and  theological  world 
and  reduces  them  to  harmony.  It  does  this  both 
in  the  historical  and  in  the  practical  realms. 

Historically,  it  accounts  for  the  course  taken 
by  Christianity,  and  especially  by  Christian  dog- 
matics, throughout  its  development,  as  well 
as  for  the  condition  of  things  existing  at  the 
present  time  in  the  religious  world.  By  it  is  made 
clear  the  real  nature  of  the  gospel,  and  of  theology, 
and  the  legitimate  relations  of  the  two.  The 
early  powerful  influence  of  the  gospel  before  the 
theological  process  began  is  explained.  We 
understand  also  why  it  took  so  strong  a  hold  upon 
the  thinking  of  the  second  and  immediately  suc- 
ceeding centuries,  as  it  transformed  itself  into  a 
welcome  philosophy  of  salvation,  founded  upon 
divine  revelation.  We  see  how,  along  with  the 
dogmatic  system,  there  grew  up  the  congenial 
institution  of  the  Catholic  church,  which  divided 
with  it  the  allegiance  of  men,  and  how  these 
two,  the  church  and  theology,  became  the  dis- 
ciplinary forces  during  the  long  period  of  the 
development  of  the  Germanic  peoples.  But  we 
perceive  also  at  what  fatal  cost  this  conquest  was 
made;  how  the  transformation  of  the  Christian 
faith  into  a  semi-pagan  philosophy,  and  the  con- 
version of  the  Spirit-filled  church  into  a  worldly 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  245 

institution,  resulted  in  a  disastrous  depotentiali- 
zation  of  Christianity,  and  changed  its  essential 
nature.  It  is  easy  to  understand,  therefore,  why 
the  conversion  of  the  world  to  this  kind  of  a  reli- 
gion should  leave  Christian  society  half  pagan 
and  produce  such  deep-seated  and  widespread 
misconception  of  what  it  means  to  be  a  Christian. 
The  whole  condition  of  things  in  the  modern 
world  also  is  explained  by  this  view.  The  re- 
discovery of  the  gospel  in  the  reopened  Bible 
led  to  the  great  practical  Reformation  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  when  the  new  reality-seeking 
spirit  began  to  make  itself  felt  in  religion.  It 
failed  to  do  more,  at  first,  than  reform  the  glar- 
ing abuses  of  the  church  and  reassert  the  prin- 
ciple of  salvation  by  faith  in  Jesus,  as  set  forth 
in  the  New  Testament.  The  old  dogmatic  en- 
tanglements remained,  and  theology  quickly  ac- 
quired increased  importance  when  it  was  left 
to  monopolize  the  attention  hitherto  shared  with 
the  church.  Even  then  trouble  might  not  have 
arisen  if  the  knowledge  emphasized  had  been 
contemporary  knowledge.  But  it  was  that  of 
the  Greek  and  Roman  world.  Meanwhile  the 
modern  spirit  had  created  a  new  knowledge, 
built  up  by  the  new  scientific  method,  and  had 
made  the  ancient  culture  obsolete.  During 
the  Middle  Ages,  theology  had  maintained  its 
hold  by  perpetuating  the  ancient  culture  with 


246        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

which  it  was  bound  up,  accomplishing  this  espe- 
cially through  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  and 
the  Ptolemaic  cosmology.  Then  suddenly  the 
whole  ancient  structure  sank  out  of  sight.  Yet 
the  Protestant  theology  insisted  upon  clinging  to 
it  and  trying  to  bring  it  back  to  a  place  in  the 
modern  world.  The  result  is  theological  confu- 
sion and  controversy,  in  which  is  being  waged 
the  last  conflict  between  two  civilizations  and 
two  bodies  of  culture. 

Meanwhile  two  hundred  years  before  the  open 
Bible  had  produced  an  evangelical  movement  ac- 
cording to  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  which  expressed 
itself  in  practical  missionary  activity  at  home  and 
abroad,  but  without  any  adequate  theological 
leadership.  Along  with  this  movement,  although 
independent  of  it,  there  arose  a  scientific  study 
of  the  Scriptures  that  has  produced  a  new  bibli- 
cal knowledge.  It  has  now  been  discovered  that 
the  theological  system  which  has  been  claiming 
sanctity  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  Bible  at  all. 
Meanwhile  the  new  science  of  church  history 
comes  in  and  tells  us  where  this  theology  came 
from :  that  it  attached  itself  to  the  gospel  during 
the  progress  of  the  centuries,  and  has  nothing 
divine  about  it  except  the  halo  cast  over  it  by 
the  gospel  which  it  professes  to  set  forth.  Here 
is  disclosed  the  condition  of  things  that  has  di- 
vorced theology  from  the  life  of  the  church  and 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  247 

given  rise  to  the  movements  and  parties  of  the 
modern  religious  world.  But  in  the  midst  of  all 
the  currents  and  countercurrents,  we  see  ever 
more  clearly  the  advance  of  the  main  stream  of 
progress — a  stream  gaining  in  definiteness  and 
volume  every  day,  drawing  the  lesser  currents 
into  itself  in  increasing  numbers,  and  moving 
forward  with  resistless,  because  divine,  force  to- 
ward a  great  theological  reformation  which  shall 
overthrow  the  first  and  oldest  heresy  that 
changed  the  gospel  of  salvation  into  a  system  of 
metaphysical  philosophy,  and  which  shall  set 
Christianity  free  to  leave  the  culture  of  the  ancient 
world  behind  it  and  enter  untrammeled  into 
modern  life  on  a  new  career  of  conquest.  All 
of  this  historical  process  of  Christianity  becomes 
plain  as  we  stand  at  the  new  center  and  look  out 
upon  it. 

Practically,  the  theological  theory  here  ad- 
vocated commends  itself  by  putting  its  adherents 
into  closer  touch  with  God  and  with  humanity. 
Returning  the  gospel  to  its  rightful  jurisdiction 
over  the  conscience  and  the  will,  instead  of  mak- 
ing it  chiefly  a  matter  of  the  intellect,  it  brings 
theology  back  from  the  clouds  of  scholastic  specu- 
lation into  a  living  world.  It  sends  a  man  with  new 
determination  to  the  Bible,  to  learn  more  of  Jesus 
and  his  divine  way  of  salvation.  It  urges  him  to 


248        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

a  new  study  of  history  in  the  hope  of  a  clearer 
understanding  of  Christian  truth  through  its  mani- 
festation in  the  historical  development.  It  puts 
him  into  sympathy  with  present-day  life  in  all  of 
its  aspects,  and  impels  him  to  seek  a  better  un- 
derstanding of  social  conditions  and  needs,  be- 
cause the  world  is  God's  and  the  object  of  his 
redemptive  work.  Thus  touching  a  living  God 
and  a  present  world,  and  seeking  to  give  a  new 
incarnation  to  the  divine  Spirit  of  Jesus,  men  are 
forced  forward  by  an  irresistible  impulse  to  bring 
the  world  to  God.  The  proverbial  influence  of 
theology,  at  least  ever  since  those  first  days  when 
it  had  vital  meaning,  has  been  to  remove  its  vo- 
taries from  the  world  of  affairs.  Here  is  a  the- 
ology that  will  give  a  man  no  rest  until  it  has 
sent  him  forth  to  the  age  in  which  he  lives  with 
Jesus'  message  of  salvation.  Theology  becomes 
a  means  to  an  end,  and  not  an  end  in  itself. 

In  this  theology  the  modern  spirit  is  given  an 
opportunity  in  religion  such  as  it  has  enjoyed  in 
other  realms,  to  turn  away  from  the  traditional 
and  hypothetical  back  to  real  conditions  and 
vital  issues.  Religious  reality  is  here  set  forth. 
We  see  again  the  age-long  struggle  between  sin 
and  righteousness,  centering  about  Him  to  whom 
we  are  ever  forced  to  look  as  the  one  who  alone  can 
lead  the  way  to  victory.  Salvation  is  again  a  real 
deliverance  from  sin,  not  some  judicial  or  meta- 


OF  THE  GOSPEL  249 

physical  fiction.  The  living  Father,  the  personal 
Savior,  the  ever-present  Spirit  are  restored  to  the 
position  assigned  them  in  the  New  Testament,  but 
so  long  usurped  by  a  metaphysical  Trinity  and  a 
speculative  Christology.  The  return  of  theology 
to  religious  reality  and  to  the  accomplishment  of 
its  mission  in  the  world,  which  results  from  the 
adoption  of  the  view  advocated,  is  a  strong  proof 
that  the  right  theory  has  been  found. 

We  need  have  no  expectation  that  this  new 
theological  adjustment  will  save  the  world.  No 
theology  can  do  that.  The  tendency  of  human 
nature  to  sin  will  still  remain.  The  forces  of  evil 
will  not  have  abated  their  determined  activity. 
But  it  will  be  something,  it  will  be  much,  to  have 
removed  the  artificial  hindrances  to  the  spread  of 
Christianity,  and  again  leave  the  divine  gospel 
unfettered  to  accomplish  its  mission  in  the  world. 

The  gospel  of  Jesus,  as  expressed  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  especially  in  the  evangelical  nar- 
ratives, is  the  faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the 
saints,  and  constitutes  the  permanent  Christian 
message,  set  forth  in  living  terms  that  every  gen- 
eration can  understand.  It  will  be  the  lasting 
glory  of  the  nineteenth  century  that  it  led  re- 
ligious thought  back  up  the  tortuous  channel  of 
ecclesiastical  history  to  the  clear  perennial 
springs  of  Christian  truth  in  the  New  Testament 


250        RECOVERY  AND  RESTATEMENT 

sources,  and  thus  brought  about  the  recovery 
of  this  gospel.  Is  it  too  much  to  expect 
that  this  task  has  been  done  once  for  all,  and 
that  the  New  Testament  gospel  may  now  remain 
the  inalienable  heritage  of  men  in  all  ages  ?  It 
certainly  is  to  be  hoped  that  every  generation 
will  maintain  the  hard-won  right  to  stand  before 
the  open  Bible  and  read  there  the  gospel  mes- 
sage for  itself,  in  all  of  the  purity  and  power  with 
which  it  came  from  the  sacred  lips  of  Him  who 
gave  it  to  the  world  at  the  cost  of  such  infinite 
sacrifice.  Then  let  each  age  do  for  itself  what 
the  first  centuries  did :  so  express  this  universal 
gospel  in  terms  of  contemporary  thought  and  in- 
stitutional life  that  it  shall  exercise  its  maximum 
influence  upon  the  men  of  that  age,  and  bring  to 
them  in  greatest  fulness  the  blessings  of  God's 
salvation  in  Jesus  Christ. 


INDEX. 


Alexandrian  School,  34,  46. 

Anselm,  200. 

Apostles:    as  theologians,  116,  192; 

their  gospel  the  same  as  Christ's, 

117;  inspiration  of,  190, 193. 
Apostles'  Creed,  32. 
Aristotle,  3,  61  note,  246. 
Art  and  literature:    realism  in,  6,  7. 
Asceticism,  61  note. 
Astronomy,  3,  5. 
Atonement,  57  ff.,  65, 172,  198  ff. 
Augsburg  Confession,  77. 
Augustine,  39,    76,  77,  So,   84,   no, 

115,  208. 
Authority,  49,  50,  72,  79,  81  ff.,  191  f., 

194,  227. 

Baur,  102,  106. 

Bible:  place  of  in  Lutheran  Refor- 
mation, 79,  81  ff.,  93;  place  of  in 
Protestantism,  83 ;  confusion  of  with 
theology,  83,  84,  85,  91,  109,  no, 
170, 171, 172 ;  place  of  in  nineteenth- 
century  reformation,  92  ff. ;  popular 
reopening  of,  95  ff. ;  scientific  reop- 
ening of,  98  ff.,  108 ;  the  two  reopen- 
ings  compared,  no,  in ;  inspiration 
of,  106,  115  ff.,  190;  place  of  in 
Christianity,  188  ff.,  194,  227. 

Calvin,  So,  85,  no,  115. 

Canon  of  the  New  Testament,  31,  114. 

Carey,  96. 

Christianity  (  see  also  "  Gospel  "  )  : 
what  is  it,  xix,  xxi,  149,  187,  220; 
restatement  of,  xxiii,  112, 153  ff.,  250; 
transformation  of,  19  ff.,  27  ff. ;  per- 
sonal element  in,  47  ff. ;  propagation 
of,  160  ff.,  231. 

Chiistology,  35  note,  36,  54,  65,  75  ff., 

I2O,  137,  172,  2OI  ff.,  204,  224. 

Church  fathers,  3. 

Church  history,  xxi  f.,  19,  90,  91,  109. 
Classes  of  educated  people,  99  ff. 
Conflict  between  kingdom  of  God  and 
kingdom  of  the  world,  232  ff. 


Copernicus,  241. 
Council  of  Trent,  77. 

Deism,  98. 

Depravity,  210. 

Descartes,  6. 

Dogma,  dogmatics  (see  also  "Theol- 
ogy"), 27  ff.,  32,  34,  35,  35  note, 
36  ff.,  43,  64,  75  ff.,  80,  91,  97,  109, 
"5,  147.  i?o,  172. 

"Enlightenment,"  98. 

Eternal  life,  213  ff. ;  nature  of,  214; 

entrance  into,  214 ;  continuance  in, 

218  ff. ;  result  and  reward,  221,  222; 

and  the  kingdom  of  God,  222  ff. 
Eternal  punishment,  217,  218. 
Exegesis,  xxi  f. ;  new  science  of,  90, 

102,  103  ff .,  106, 179 ;  attitude^toward 

New  Testament,  112  ff. 

Faith,  41,  47,  135,  136,  215,  218,  219, 
225. 

Finney,  96. 

Forgiveness,  225;  Christ's  usage,  54 
ff.,  115,124;  Paul's  usage,  55,  56: 
theological  usage,  (56;  compared 
with  justification,  57,  65;  nature  of, 
216. 

God  :  Jesus'  usage,  50  ff.,  65,  115, 
120;  Paul's  usage,  50,51;  theologi- 
cal usage,  52,  53;  Author  of  sal- 
vation, 122,  205  ff. ;  interpreted  by 
Christ,  205 ;  nature  of,  205  ff . 

Gospel,  The:  obscuration  of,  xv  ff., 
40 ff.,  42  ff.,  46, 47  ff.,  59  ff.,  64  ff.,  66, 
91 ;  finality  of,  xxv,  173  ;  recovery  of, 
67  ff.,gi,  97, 107,  in,  249 ;  re-eclipse 
of,  73  ff.,  85  ff.,  87,  88 ;  fundamental 
nature  of,  118,  135  ff.,  138  ff.,  144  ff., 
146  ff.,  153,  197. 

Gospel  narratives,  117,  189. 

Gnost's,  32,  36  note,  64,  113. 

Gnosticism,  32,  33  ff. 

Greek  influence,  20,  28  ff.,  38,  39, 
42  ff.,  47,  64,  75,  78,  89. 

Greek  philosophy,  28  ff.,  32,  75. 


251 


252 


INDEX 


Hamack,  35  note,  61  note,  240  note. 

Hegel,  1 01. 

Herder,  102. 

Heresy,  23,  45,  60,  77,  88. 

Historical  conditions  explained,  244  ff. 

History,  7,  8. 

Holy  Spirit,  49,  65,  82,  206. 

Idealism,  98,  101 . 
Individualism,  72. 
Interpretation  (see  "Exegesis"). 
Irenaeus,  34. 

Jesus  Christ:  the  ultimate  reality, 
xxiv-xxvi,  17,  108;  displacement  of, 
40  f-.  53.  54.  64;  the  object  of  faith, 
41, 136 ;  recovery  of,  107,  108 ;  death 
of,  119;  mediator  of  salvation,  118, 
197  ff .,  224 ;  relation  to  God,  120, 
121,  201  ff.,  204 ;  nature  of,  120,  121, 
201  ff.,  204,224;  Lord  of  the  king- 
dom, 125,  224 ;  position  in  theology, 
187  ff.,  107 ;  the  founder  and  founda- 
tion of  Christianity,  189,  196 ;  mis- 
sion of,  198  ff. ;  commandments  of, 
226  ;  final  coming  of,  238. 

John,  writings  of,  114, 123,  129. 

Justification :  Paul's  usage,  55, 56, 191 ; 
theological  usage,  56;  compared 
with  forgiveness,  57,  65,  191 ; 
Luther's  revival  of,  70,  115,  192. 

Kant,  101,  241. 

Kingdom  of  God,  123  ff.,  222  ff. ;  con- 
ditions of  entrance,  124;  life  in, 
125,  222  ff. ;  Christ  ruler  of,  125, 
224;  law  of,  125,  126,  225  ff. ;  holiness 
in,  126 ;  present  and  future,  127 ;  as 
a  society,  128,  197,  225,  229,  233  ff. ; 
organic  nature  of,  222,  233  ff. ;  rela- 
tions within,  223  ff. ;  subjects  of, 
335,  233  ff. ;  law  of  fulfilled,  227  ff. ; 
author  of,  223,  224 ;  same  subjects 
as  kingdom  of  humanity,  232  ff. ; 
progress  and  consummation  of,  232 
if. ;  conflict  with  kingdom  of  the 
world,  232  ff. ;  triumph  of,  237,  238. 

Lateran  council,  37,  76. 
Lessing,  103. 

Logos,  35  note,  53  ff.,  65,  303. 
Love,  225  ff.,  227  ff. 
Lowell,  quotation  from,  88. 
Luther,  70,  82,  93,  no,  115. 
Lutheran  Reformation,  14,  68  ff.,  73, 
74.  "4. 


Man :  origin  of,  207  ff. ;  nature  of, 
209  ff. ;  recipient  of  eternal  life,  207 
ff. ;  a  sinner,  210 ;  as  subject  of 
kingdom,  225. 

Modern  culture,  4  ff.,  10,  u,  85  ff.; 
and  ancient  theology,  86,  87,  101, 
177 ;  and  ancient  culture,  98,  101. 

Modem  spirit,  The :  in  nature,  3  ff. ; 
in  religion,  12  ff.,  16,  248;  and 
Lutheran  Reformation,  86 ;  and  nine- 
teenth-century reformation,  89. 

Montanism,  26,  32,  60  note. 

Moody,  96. 

Moral  element,  59  ff.,  66. 

Neoplatonism,  35  note. 

New  Testament  (see  also  "Bible"), 

viii,  90,  112  ff.,  189  ff.,  195,  196. 
New  Testament  and  dogma,  78. 
Nicaea,  council  of,  37  note. 

Nineteenth-century  reformation,  16  ff., 
89  ff.,  97,  109,  no,  249. 

Origen,  34,  36,  36  note,  43,  46,  101, 

103,  no,  208. 
Orthodox,  orthodoxy,  32,  34,  45,  91, 

100,  1 01,  144. 

Paul,  50,  55,  56,  84,  105,  114,  115,  172, 
191. 

Paul  of  Samosata,  37  note. 

Personal  element:  eclipse  of,  47  ff., 
50  ff.,  59,  65;  restoration  of,  248, 
249. 

Philosophy,  6,  28  ff.,  44, 175,  242. 

Pistt's,  32,  64, 113. 

Probabilism,  61  note. 

Protestantism,  72;  distinctive  princi- 
ples, 72,  73;  antinomies  of,  79; 
early  changes  in,  79,  Si,  83,  85; 
union  of,  107,  181,  182;  weakness 
in,  162;  theology  of,  74,  So,  81,  86, 
87,  181,  182. 

Ptolemy,  3,  246. 

Rationalism,  98. 

Reality:  ultimate  in  Christ,  xii-xiv, 
17 ;  search  for  in  nature,  3  ff. ; 
search  for  in  religion,  12  ff.,  15  ff. ; 
loss  of  in  religion,  13,  15;  restora- 
tion of,  17,  248. 

Reformers,  74,  So. 

Regeneration,  214  ff. 

Renaissance,  3,  85. 

Repentance,  135,  215,  225. 


INDEX 


253 


Return  to  Christ's  gospel,  17,  114  ff., 

185  ff. 

Revivals,  96,  97,  161,  178. 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  13,  20  ff.,  37. 
Roman  Catholic  theology,  13, 16,  27  ff. , 

77- 
Roman  influence,  20,  27, 28,  38, 39, 42, 

48,  64,  69. 
Romanticism,  98. 
Rule  of  faith,  the,  33,  36  note. 

Salvation,  41,  47  ff.,  70,  78 ;  nature  of, 
123  ff.,  129;  as  kingdom  of  God, 
123  ff.,  222  ff. ;  conditions  of,  124, 
130;  as  eternal  life,  129  ff.,  213  ff. ; 
as  the  theme  of  the  gospel,  197. 

Sanctification,  220. 

Schleiermacher,  101. 

Science,  4,  5. 

Secularization  of  worship,  42. 

Semler,  102. 

Sin:  origin  of,  211  ff. ;  nature  of, 
212  ff. 

Social  relations,  sociology,  9,  134, 
163, 197,  209,  222  ff.,  225,  233  ff. 

Soul,  origin  of,  208. 

Sovereignty  of  God,  115,  206,  223. 

Strauss,  102,  106. 


Synoptic  gospels,  123. 

Tennyson,   quotation  from,   175,  237. 

Terminology:  of  the  four  gospels, 
123,  129,  132;  gospel  not  identical 
with,  133;  of  Jesus,  133,  134,  185; 
of  theology,  148. 

Tertullian,  34,  39,  So,  84. 

Theology  (see  also  "Dogma")  :  and 
the  biblical  sciences,  90,  179;  nature 
of,  154  ff.,  180;  subject-matter  of, 
155  ff.,  197;  duty  of,  156,  176,  178, 
184;  presuppositions  of,  157,  139, 
206;  consequences  of,  158,  159; 
value  of,  159  ff.,  164  ff.,  1676.; 
preaching  of,  160,  161,  162,  178; 
right  of  restatement,  170  ff.,  173  ff. ; 
temporary  [character  of,  174,  175; 
need  of  restatement,  176  ff.,  184, 
188;  position  of  Jesus  in,  187  ff.; 
the  new  center,  241  ff. ;  practical 
influence  of,  247,  248. 

Threefold  morality,  61  note. 

Trinity,  36,  75  ff.,  172. 

Vatke,  102. 
Voltaire,  101. 

Wesley,  96. 

Wordsworth,  quotation  from,  63. 


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